FOOTNOTES:
[84] The township system of survey was adopted in the first ordinance for the sale of public lands, passed May 20, 1785. The authorship of the plan has been a subject of controversy. It is usually attributed to Thomas Hutchins, first geographer of the United States, who had earlier embodied the idea in a plan for establishing military colonies north of the Ohio. See Hindsale, Old Northwest (New York, 1888), p. 262.—Ed.
[85] At every land office, a register of the weather is kept. Three daily observations of the thermometer, the direction of the wind, the aspect of the sky, whether clear or clouded, fair or rainy days; and some other occasional phenomena, are noted down.—Flint.