limits or boundaries of a tract of land as identified by natural landmarks, such as rivers, or by man-made structures, such as roads, or by stakes or other markers. A principal legal type of land description in the United States, metes-and-bounds descriptions are commonly used wherever survey areas are irregular in size and shape. The land boundaries are run out by courses and distances, and monuments, natural or artificial, are fixed at the corners, or angles. A course is the direction of a line, usually with respect to a meridian but sometimes with respect to the magnetic north. Distance is the length of a course measured in some well-known unit, such as feet or chains.

A metes-and-bounds description of a triangular-shaped tract of land might be as follows: “Beginning at a point from which the north quarter corner of Section 4, T. 1 N (township 1 north), R. 70 W (range 70 west) of the 6th PM (the sixth principal meridian, a north–south reference line) in Boulder County, Colorado, bears N 45° W 1,320 feet, at which point of beginning an iron stake has been placed; thence south 600 feet to a point also marked by an iron stake; thence N 45° W 700 feet to a large oak tree; thence northeasterly to the point of beginning.”