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From:
Subject: Re: [LDR] Where's West?
Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 10:32:35 EDT


In a message dated 5/3/2004 8:58:44 AM Eastern Standard Time,
writes:
> Our ancestors might have been differently oriented than we are; the
> Pocomoke is generally oriented north-south except right at its mouth. For
> the purposes of decoding, west and north would be the same and east and
> south. would be the same.

No decoding required; this is all plaintext, not crypto. There's a universal
correctness in the ancient descriptions good at the very local levels of
surveys. If the surveyor spoke to a bounder on a southward winding of a river or
creek that otherwise went mostly east-west, he called it "west" or "east" of
that stretch of the waterway. He knew which way the sun was. Virtually all of
these make perfect modern sense, and are very helpful in fine placement. The
only (very rare) exceptions appear to be what I deduce as clerical errors in
the Land Office in 17th century patent transcripts, in which what must very
obviously been a "north" in the no-longer-surviving surveyor submission became a
"south" in the transcript. As I say, "rare".

John Lyon

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