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The following sentence makes no sense: "This grant was apportioned in five sections on alternating sides of the railroad, with each section measuring one-fifth of a mile in length by 10 miles in height." A section, by definition, is one square mile. A section measures one mile on each side. 70.137.154.103 (talk) 03:23, 5 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I have reverted your changes to restore my original language which was drawn directly from Section 3 of the 1862 Act (12 Stat. 489 §3) and which I had also cited as the source, to-wit: "That there be, and is hereby, granted to the said company, for the purpose of aiding in the construction of said railroad and telegraph line, and to secure the safe and speedy, transportation of the mails, troops, munitions of war, and public stores thereon, every alternate section of public land, designated by odd numbers, to the amount of five alternate sections per mile on each side of said railroad, on the line thereof, and within the limits of ten miles on each side of said road, not sold, reserved, or otherwise disposed of by the United States, and to which a preemption or homestead claim may not have attached, at the time the line of said road is definitely fixed." Therefore a land grant "section" as defined by the Act was one-fifth of a mile in length (i.e., along the grade or right of way) by 10 miles in height (2 sq.mi./1,280 acres), not one mile square (1 sq.mi./640 acres). Centpacrr (talk) 03:41, 5 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I repeat, the definition of "sections" as it applies to the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 (12 Stat. 489 §3) is as stated above, to-wit: one-fifth of a mile in length (i.e., along the grade or right of way) by 10 miles in height (2 sq.mi./1,280 acres), not one mile square (1 sq.mi./640 acres), and that there were five alternate sections per mile on each side of said railroad. That is what the language of the Act says was how the land grants were to be made in the original legislation. As the subject of this article is the Pacific Railroad Acts, then the verbatim legislative language contained in the Acts is the absolute and ultimate source authority as regards to the definition of terms. To avoid any further confusion on your part as to this point, I have now inserted the exact language used in the Act defining a "land grant section" ("...every alternate section of public land, designated by odd numbers, to the amount of five alternate sections per mile on each side of said railroad, on the line thereof, and within the limits of ten miles on each side") to the text of the article. Centpacrr (talk) 21:02, 6 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
