43 U.S.C. § 752 : US Code - Section 752: Boundaries and contents of public lands; how ascertained

Search 43 U.S.C. § 752 : US Code - Section 752: Boundaries and contents of public lands; how ascertained

The boundaries and contents of the several sections, half-
sections, and quarter-sections of the public lands shall be
ascertained in conformity with the following principles:
First. All the corners marked in the surveys, returned by the
Secretary of the Interior or such agency as he may designate, shall
be established as the proper corners of sections, or subdivisions
of sections, which they were intended to designate; and the corners
of half- and quarter-sections, not marked on the surveys, shall be
placed as nearly as possible equidistant from two corners which
stand on the same line.
Second. The boundary lines, actually run and marked in the
surveys returned by the Secretary of the Interior or such agency as
he may designate, shall be established as the proper boundary lines
of the sections, or subdivisions, for which they were intended, and
the length of such lines as returned, shall be held and considered
as the true length thereof. And the boundary lines which have not
been actually run and marked shall be ascertained, by running
straight lines from the established corners to the opposite
corresponding corners; but in those portions of the fractional
townships where no such opposite corresponding corners have been or
can be fixed, the boundary lines shall be ascertained by running
from the established corners due north and south or east and west
lines, as the case may be, to the watercourse, Indian boundary
line, or other external boundary of such fractional township.
Third. Each section or subdivision of section, the contents
whereof have been returned by the Secretary of the Interior or such
agency as he may designate, shall be held and considered as
containing the exact quantity expressed in such return; and the
half sections and quarter sections, the contents whereof shall not
have been thus returned, shall be held and considered as containing
the one-half or the one-fourth part, respectively, of the returned
contents of the section of which they may make part.