The instruments needed in simple surveying are, compass, measuring tape, draughtsman’s scale, protractor, drawing materials and a small home-made transit.  The leader should, if possible, become familiar with some good textbook on surveying, such as Wentworth’s Plane Trigonometry and Surveying.  He should also get some civil engineer to give him a little instruction in the rudiments.  It is well also to get some practice before going to camp.  Any vacant lot or gymnasium floor will be suitable.  If the leader is near a small lake that will be especially desirable.

The transit is easily made.  A flat board should be selected, about twelve inches in diameter, which will not warp.  Upon this a circle is marked about ten inches in diameter.  For this purpose use a pair of drawing compasses.  Then with a protractor lay off the degrees of the circle.  A small brass protractor can be bought for 15 cents, a good one, large size, costs 80 cents.  A good plan is to mark the circle on bristol board [1] which can be tacked in the board.  Then a pointed piece of wood ten inches long should be fastened with a nail in the center of the circle.  At the ends of the pointer pins should be placed vertically so that they are in line with the pivot nail.  This will form a sight for measuring the angles.  The board is then mounted upon a pointed stick or tripod.  You will need a hatchet and a half dozen sharpened sticks for markers and a boy for rod man.  You are now ready for the survey.

[Transcribers Footnote 1:  Smooth, heavy pasteboard.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 1.  Top View of Transit, Protractor, Sighting Pins, Board for Circle, Support]

Camp Survey

To make a map of the location of the camp, the first thing is to locate a base line on a level piece of ground.  At the two ends A and B stakes are placed and the length carefully measured with the tape.  Then from one end of the line stretch a string about ten feet long, toward the other stake.  Under this string place the compass.  In this way the direction of the line may be learned.

In figure 1, the base line runs about 10 degrees west of north.  Drive a stake where the tent is to be located.  This place will be called C. Then place the transit at A and measure the angle formed by the imaginary lines AC and ab.  In the example the angle is about 45 degrees.  Then place the transit at B and measure the angle there, formed by the lines ab and BC.  Then the angle at C should be measured and the sum of the angles thus measured will be 180 degrees, if the work is correct.

[Illustration:  Fig. 2, Fig. 3, Fig. 4]

Now make a drawing of the survey.  Draw on paper a line corresponding to the line ab, making a certain scale, say 100 feet to the inch.  If the real line is 200 feet long, the line on the paper will be 2 inches.  With the protractor the angles at B and A may be drawn or plotted.  This will give the location of the point C. With the scale determine on the plan the length of the other sides of the triangle ABC.  The actual distances should next be measured with the tape to test the accuracy of the survey.