HISTORIE, TECHNIEKEN EN MAATSCHAPPELIJKE ...

headwaters of the Suriname river and of the Corantijn, and reconnoitre the
latter. (This last mentioned task was not realized).
The 7th and last of these expeditions, the Corantijn-expedition had to in-
vestigate the Corantijn region, especially the stretch of land lying east of
it.
The compilations of the findings of all these scientific expeditions in one
map, published originally in 1913 and re-issued in 1927 was done by Spirlet,
chief of the Surinamese Surveying Brigade. This map can be seen as the
first to render the complete framework of headwater-courses and the most
outstanding mountain ranges in their proper relationship to each other and
oriented on the true north.
A practical benefit of this map was its use as a basis for a synoptical map
for the division into blocks of the balata-exploitation areas.
6. The period of the Survey Brigade (19 1 1-1930)
6.1.& History, Plan en Execution of the topographic work
6.2.
In the year 1911 Spirlet was installed as Government-Surveyor and given
the task of bringing about improvements in the cadastral and topographical
situation in Suriname.
To obtain "fixed-pointst' to which the surveys could be related,
astronomical observations were carried out at various places in the coastal
area.
These points were tied together with base-lines (traverses) hooking up with
property-surveys, thus serving cadastral purposes and topographical measu-
rements. Between 1912 en 1916 a total of 2534.2 km of baselines were
measured; thereafter Paramaribo was surveyed.
By 1919 a total of 66,522 ha was surveyed and mapped on the scale 1:10.000
and reductions made on the scales 1:50.000 and 1:200.000. However only 17
sheets (from the 320 planned were printed (including one of Paramaribo).
As a datum for the vertical measurements in these surveys the lowest
known water level on the tide-gauge at Beekhuizen between 1904 and 1909
was taken. The task of Spirlet included the connection of the mountain-
triangulation network with the astronomical fixed points in the coastal
belt.
6.3. Geodetic base for a Cadastre of Paramaribo
At the intersections of all streets in Paramaribo, heavy concrete markers
were set up, half a meter below groundlevel.
The lines connecting these points together formed a dense net which provi-
ded the base-lines for the measurement of the lots in the city.
The project, started in 1913, was stopped in 1915, leaving everything there-
after untouched. By then the net-Gork was finished but only a few lots had
their boundaries fixed.
6.4. The map of Bakhuis and De Quant (1930)
With the help the basic data i.e. the results of the scientific expeditions, 26
astronomical stations set up by Van Stockum in 1911 and 1912, the work of
the surveying Brigade and corrections in longitudinal, observations made by
Kremer in 1927 using precise time-measurements, Bakhuis and De Quant in
1930 issued a synoptical map in the scale 1:200.000 in 16 sheets.