Article taken from "Backsights" Magazine published by Surveyors Historical Society

Upon our NEEDLE we depend

In ye THICK WOODS our COURSE to know

Then after it ye CHAIN Extend

For we must gain our DISTANCE so

Over ye HILLS through BRUSHEY PLAINS

And HIDIOUS SWAMPS where is no TRACK

Cross RIVERS, BROOKS we with much PAINS

Are forced to travel forth & back...

When WEARY STEPS has brought us home

And NEEDLE, CHAIN have some respite

SCALE and DIVIDERS in use come

To FIT all for next morning light

And though we’re CAREFUL in ye same

As HAST & OBSTICLES will yeild

Yet after times they will us BLAME

When ROUGH WILD WOODS are made a Field.

Anonymous 1730 poem, from a map of "25 Divisions" in Stoughton, Massachusetts. Reprinted from The Maryland Surveyor, Vol. 24, No. 2, March 1997. Our thanks to editor C. Langelan for passing this along.