On and after Mar. 3, 1899, all standard, meander, township, and section lines of the public-land surveys shall be established under the direction and supervision of the Secretary of the Interior or such officer as he may designate, whether the lands to be surveyed are within or without national forests, except that where the exterior boundaries of national forests are required to be coincident with standard, township, or section lines, such boundaries may, if not previously established in the ordinary course of the public-land surveys, be established and marked under the supervision of the Director of the United States Geological Survey whenever necessary to complete the survey of such exterior boundaries.
(Mar. 3, 1899, ch. 424, §1,
"National forests" substituted in text for "reservations" and "public forest reservations" on authority of act Mar. 4, 1907, ch. 2907,
"Secretary of the Interior or such officer as he may designate" substituted in text for "Commissioner of the General Land Office" on authority of Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1946, set out in the Appendix to Title 5, Government Organization and Employees.
For transfer of functions of other officers, employees, and agencies of Department of the Interior, with certain exceptions, to Secretary of the Interior, with power to delegate, see Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1950, §§1, 2, eff. May 24, 1950, 15 F.R. 3174,