The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-04-22

" writes the following interesting lette
III to his mother, Mrs A Francis judo
from the Yale Forest School camp i
Missouri where thirty of the student
are studying numbering for a fey
weeks:
Yale Forest School Camp,
Shannon Co, Missouri
e March "a, 1907.
O Dear Mamma: Since my letter t,
you written last Sunday we have beer
: very busy with the survey and tn,
, week has gone very fast.
/ On Monday I was one among six tt
I remain in camp to do some calculations
of transit lines and some drawing.
had the honor of drawing the first lines
on our large map of this region. The
surveying is progressing rapidly and
all the field work will be finished in
about ten days. Then we will go on
with the measurement of the trees, etc
On Tuesday I was sent out to run
township lines with the lumber COM
pany's timber cruiser and surveyor, Mr.
Ode1l, who is also minister. He Show
ed us how to cut out the old blazes on
trees of the government survey which
blazes had grown over with IS rings OF
wood growth and it was remarkable
how he could tell whether the tree had
fbeen blazed or not. I ran a line with
the compass half mile through the
woods and came out only two feet away
from the corner section monument
| On Wednesday I went out with But
Ter and we ran traverse in a piece
/ l. l.. H.,
/ formed a triangle. We made a map
of the country a we moved along.
showing the topography by contour
! lines and pacing the distances between
| our stations.
| On Thursday I was in charge of
party of three and was told to run a
traverse to the railroad camp and then
back to the Alley road We ran about
five m les that day and tied up the sur
vey to a witness tree near a quarter
section monument. We then went back
to the railroad camp where We We're
lodged for the night. We had large
tent all to ourselves with two feather
beds with white sheets It was the
first time that We had tasted of these
Injuries of civilization for many day. |
Our tent flaps were up and we had
plenty of fresh air. The new moon |
shed a gentle light through the pines
and oaks and the only things which |
disturbed our slumbers We're the bark |
ing of some puppies and the grunt OF |
proving pigs. The camp consists of |
twenty large tents scattered along the
narrow valley bottom for about a
Quarter mile. We had our meals with
the men in the mess tent and were
wa ted on by the foreman's two daugh- II
ters. The grub was excellent and of
great variety and the lunch they put
up for us was delicious. We paid only
So cents apiece for it all
On Friday we began our work at the
tree, having had breakfast at
$50 a. M. and ran a traverse s. w.
to the Alley road covering about five
miles of very rough country, running
up steep ridges and down into deep
valleys densely wooded. We ate lunch
near a little spring whose ice cold
water flowed out of the solid limestone.
We returned here to camp from ou4
two days trip at A p. m. and had a
refreshing bath in the pool near the
spring before supper. On our trip we
eame across a peach tree in full bloom
near a settlers cabin and it was a
beautiful sight.
Yesterday we We're given a day off
is we had worked all of the previous |
1t is my job to fill and clean
he lamps this week and so | spent the
doing that and also in split
ing wood and washing my under
clothes. I have cut two of the fellows
lar with scissors and about a dozen
if them have had their heads clipped
lose with the clippers. They look now
ike convicts.
Yesterday afternoon Kellogg and
legged up a sort of shelter tent with
ur two tarpaulins. put straw on the
mound between some logs covered it Z
With olcloth and comforter and then
mt down our blankets. We slept out
here last night and will continue to
o so as the air in the bunk house ia
lot very fresh and it is rather stuffy
n the hunks. Out in the tent the air
8 delicious and we had a beautiful
leep. The singing of the many sweet
irds lulled us to sleep and the gentle
1oonlight filtered through the oaks in
he valley bottom.
Last evening we had a huge bonfire
ear the camp and sat around it on
ections of logs sing ng songs and tell
IS stories in true woodland style.
his life in the woods is delightful and
-e are enjoying it immensely. We are
citing to know the country we'll and
'e hardly any longer need our COM
ass to tell us our directions in the
'ood.
Some of the fellows came up to camp n
'om Grandin on Thursday and at fl
Hey one of them mailed foreign let.
er at the country store p. O., the first
,tter of it's kind ever to be sent out ;:
'om there. The settlers were greatly II
Scited over the fact b
Today is Sunday and we are loafing ~
round camp. In the morning we took
notos of the crowd which I hope will
Urn out well. I will send some on
hen finished.
This past week there have been nu.
erous fires in the woods set by the
1ttlers to burn up the leaves and Inn
rove the grazing. They have not been G;
we're, only ground fires and we have
ad no difficulty in crossing them in
IT work. I have a picture of one