Arizona republican., 1910-07-27
SPECIAL AGENTS REPORT
It Was Taken in Winter, as the Only Means of Get ting About Were Then Afforded Starvation and Death Confronted.

Washington. July 26.-Temperature 1 from 20 to 70 degrees below zero. snow from three to twenty feet deep Wind blowing d blizzard most of the | time. No human habitation in sight; no covering at night except a tent, and no grub" that was not many times i frozen. These are some of the con ditions under which the recent census vas taken in the interior. of Alaska. i The report of Chief Special Agent Me ] KenZie covering the work in the fourth or inland district of the territory has | just been received by Director Durand, and while the story is simply told it ! is wonderful thrilling narrative of ad- venture, showing that when Uncle sam | startss out to round up his children | he spares no expense to locate them and satisfy himself as to their status. MT. McKenzie's narrative, made pub l lie tonight, comes in advance of his | figures so that it is impossible to give the population of ihe country covered by him and his twenty assistants. For reasons of it's own the census bureau determined to number the Alaskans during midwinter. MT. Mckenzie made his headquarters at the mining town cf Fairbanks. His first special agent was appointed on the 10th of last No vember and the work was completed by the 11th of last April. when Me Kenzie left for the states" His ex- perience in getting out of the coun- try was by no means as thrilling as some of his experiences while engaged
 
 to arouse interest in q warm spell. Of it he says:
 T came out on the mail coach ar irving at Valdez on the goth after d varied experience consisting of being delayed two days by a blizzard. cross ing rushing streams even when the horses had to swim and the sleds float and travelling day and night with the thermometer often as low as 40 be- low zero"
 The bureaus principal reason for a winter census is found in the fact that getting about the country is much easier at that than at any other sea son. There are no bridges in the country and as crossing the streams when not frozen over is serious problem, Mir. Mckenzie says that to have made the enumeration in the summer would have required the serv- ices of four times as many assistants while the cost would have been six times as great He also expressed doubt as to whether the result would have been as satisfactory As it is, he is of the opinion that it is "accur ate and complete"
 Much hardship was necessarily in volved in the work Only men inured to the rigors of the Arctic climate were employed, and while they suffered se- verely none of them lost their lives. Summing up the conditions Mir Me Kenzie says:
 The work was performed during the severest winter known in this part of Alaska by the oldest settlers and the men kept constantly and conscientiously at it until completed. There did not appear to be man who did not have a pride in the work, an anxiety to ere ate q record for travelling time. de sire to enumerate all the people in his district and to have to his credit less loss of time because of extreme weath- | CT than any of the other agents That | the service lost none of the men from II teHlhS lo utdlu anu that every man | returned safe is a matter of congratu- | lation and good fortune There were l more deaths from the weather in this | section during the past winter than | in all of the other years in total cases too in which those who met such | deaths did not begin to go through l the sacrifice and privation that those | agents of the service did. All of the | men covered hundreds of miles over l the ice and snow in weather ranging | from 30 to 70 degrees below zero, the | average being 40 below"
 The experience of the agent in | Chandlar district is fair example | Speaking of him the chief agent says | 'he was not q scholar, but a man who | had lived there for years and well | fitted to undergo the privation neces- | sary." That his good qualities were | put to the severest test the report | shows
 throughout all of his work" says Me | Kenzie, ''and at no time after he left | Fairbanks until he returned did the | thermometer get above 30 degrees be- | low zero. His long journey away from l the base of supplies made it impossi- i ble for him to carry sufficient grub | and dog feed, and he was obliged to | live off of the country. killing moose | mountain sheep and other fresh meat ! During the work he lost two of his |
 
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