Gardnerville record. (Gardnerville, Nev.) 1898-1902, 1901-03-14
ON GOVERNMENT SURVEYS
Bv Hon. S. P. Davis in CHICAGO
Record.

government will not head any survey
Ing parties this way for some time yet.
The nephews, uncles and brotheis-ln-
law Of the congressman are all rather
we'll provided for In the army contract
department, and not do need situations
in the survey department just now.
We have already had two surveys Of
Nevada. Maj Powell swept over the
country with very pleasant staff OF
Young men, who left numberless tri-
angulations and few breach-of-prom-
suits along the route. Nal Wheeler
followed with new set OF young men
and took some more chickens and fields
notes and broke the hearts Of the
young ladies the same as their prede-
cessors had done. 1t was the Wheeler
expedition that attempted TO utilize the
Nevada mule IN the government SER
vice. The major felt that the animal
was capable of filing wide sphere of
usefulness for the United States,
used frequently to drop into Maj.
Wheelers tent about lunch tinn) and
make Inquiries regarding the progress
of the survey. The head Of the squad
was young fellow named Nerill, and
he had light and airy way of dispos-
ing Of government business. With the
unlimited credit of the department ut
his back he could order anything.
Bob he said, one day while We
We're eating lunch, run down TO
Wylie's grocerie and get ~ worth Of
coffee, buy sixteen mules any where up
the valley and pass the butter before
you go.o
The person addressed, who was "a
sort of handy man about the camp,
wrote few notes on his shirt cuff and
hastened away He took couple oi
bracers al Johnnie Myers and after
that he seems TO have made a sad mix :
ture of the order He boughf $40
worth of coffee and then started up the
valley TO purchase some 81 mules. Now,
il happens that mules of that strain art.
not hard to run across in Carson Valley
although some of them are mighty
hard 10 stray across.
When the mules We're brought into
camp they walked right up TO the
fence and allowed themselves 10 be
hitched rs If each recognized the indi-
yidual post to which he belonged. At
night when those six teen mules uproot-
ed the fence and swept down over the
camp with ii at the rate of fifteen
miles an hour IL was different. They
Til " IMPLY took the camp upon the
barbed wire and carried II up the val
ley, sitting out sleeper or II theodolite
or II surveyors compass rs they went.
You can we'll imagine that il WAS stirr-
ing times with that camp for u spell,
and The mules took the surveying ex-
pedition back and forth over the
ground several times before they wound
the whole outfit up in u grove of young
cottonwood trees.
Then the stall mlinbered them
selves from the wreck and il would OF
made your heart bleed 10 hear how
they hammered those mules with the
off legs of their theodolites and heaped
government profanity upon them at the
same time. After killing those mule )
in body they reported their deaths by
hay fever and bought some more,
which they took pains Ia hitch TO trees
from that time on.
These animals We're taken down into
Mason valley hunting water sites. The
way they Went al ii was all wrong,
however, The surveyors tied the
mules in string and loaded them
down with scientific Instruments
then they led them about by the nose,
hunting spots for storage reservoirs
They seldom found any. The proper
way would have been to give the mule,
1 the lead and follow them. The,
would have guided the scientists righi
IN every instance.