The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1915-06-19

morse, first over a so-called wagon road where
the six-horse wagons we're frequently begged or
upset, and then after even that semblance of a
road had disappeared the so horses constituting
our pack train we're loaded with the camp outfit
and supplies. Rivers and lakes we're crossed
at great risk on the rotten ice. Seventeen days
out from Whitehorse the party crossed the last
remaining ice bridge on the White river, and this
was hardly accomplished ere the gorge broke
through with a report like that of a hundred can
non and went swirling away In the swollen wa
tiers Of that stream"
In running survey lines in that faraway re-
gion, Mr.. Riggs says: Rivers filled with danger
GUS quicksands have to be crossed, mountains
scaled at the risk of life and limb, and then
comes ~drudgery of crossing the bottomless
swamps OF the low lying lands. Horses mire
down one after another and lie there with their
heavy packs mutely gazing at the wornout
packer, who after exhausting every known means
to get the poor beast to its feet gives vent to his
narrowed feelings in ornate blasphemy."
The question of provisions is a vital one, be-
cause they go astray at times or a cache may be
rided by Indians or wild animals. The civil en-
gineers and their parties are seldom able to live
upon the land. They have to depend upon their
regular supplies, and more than once a surveyor
has been reduced to starvation rations and forced
to make a hurried trip back to the nearest base.
Indeed, an instance of this sort occurred dur
ing the boundary survey, and two men were dis
patched back in a canoe by way of an unex-
plored river. They went off with a little bread
and a small allowance of ~bacon-hardly enough
to last for two days. On they went, hoping to
pick up the trail of a following relief party that
had somehow been delayed. Fortunately, this
was effected Just before the canoe turned an
abrupt bend in the river. Around that bend the
stream dipped into a pocket which probably
would have meant certain death.
True, in the lowlands Of Alaska the summer 10
hot and the days long, but up in the mountains
the arctic chill is felt, and the surveyors have
to go provided with garments to meet these ex-
tremes, and above all must they have the sturdi-
est of boots in which to battle over that rug
ged country. The surveyor must check his lines
by suitable triangulations, and to do this it will
be necessary for him frequently to stand or
climb where peril surrounds him we'll nigh on
every side. Indeed, he will have to hold on by
his eyelids or be something akin to a human
drag along his instruments.
But the sun is not overkndly in Alaska, and
there are heavy and well nigh continual rains,
especially along the coast. The surveyor seizes
upon every clear moment to take panoramic pic
lures from definite points. and from these. later
in the shelter of his camp OF the warmth of his
winter office back in civilization, he works out
the topography of his line and plans the way for
the engineers. In lieu Of this. he must toll along
as best he can under the climatic handicaps. and
by means of the flashing heIograph he sends his
signals afar into the haze and talks with his dis
tant fellows.
There is besides the menace of disease. This
was instanced in the case of the boundary survey