First, consider the rectangular lot. This occurs quite frequently and is the simplest to handle. For practical purposes, the words "rectangular lot" are meant to describe a lot whose interior angles are all at or very near 90°.
The proper description of this, as shown, would be:
or it could be described as:
Either of these methods of dividing the lot are perfectly acceptable, but the parts are not interchangeable. Chance of error is manifestly greater if an attempt is made to combine the two methods of describing a lot. The principle behind this is that the "North 50 feet" means 50 feet measured at right angles or perpendicular to the north line of the lot. The "North half" means one-half of the area in the lot. This rule is at times not followed, but only when the problem is in the hands of a person trained in this work.
