The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-11-14
Nenana canyon. The railway survey is on the right bank.
Above-Thomas Riggs, Jr, Alaskan Railway Commissioner

a survey stake Of any description
| whatever IN the wholo 3cp mi'c stretch
until tho Government railway .ugi-
neers went To- work. II is TN. home uf
the mountain sheep, the caribou, the
moose and Ia" bear.
\ greater gam, country does rot
exist in all America To-day than thai
800 mile stretch II forest. mountain
and river. only Indians have tracked
that wilderness. save now and then
"A wandering pruSp"ytur Drawer than
the rest. Human beings arouse keen
curiosity in mountain sheep and carl
buu, holding these timid animals
fascinated. The writer and Commits
siUner Riggs saw a caribou on tho
Nenana River stand and watch a
hunting party a few hundred feet
away. while a modern rifle harkel At
him. and later. when the animal had
been killed further down stream, 1t
was found hat the early shots had
actually nickel his horns. just across
the river a surveying party was work
ing and as a matter of fact the hoNs
reported that the caribou had been
in sight all the morning within easy
shot.
one of the engineers working on
the Nenana near Broad Pass reported
In his first letter from camp that when
the transit was set up through tn"
lens a band of eighty-four sheep was
counted on a nearby hill. 1t + all but
needless to say that there was a sheep
supper that night in camp. 1t wasn't
the only one either nor was mountain
sheep, rarest of game delicacies, the
only game enjoyed by that survey
party.
To pack in fresh beef-raised in the
Western States, by the way, ana
shipped ana driven into ~Fa!rhankS-
to the camp at the head of tn" N"nana
with such an abundance of gam" going
to waste seemed not only II pr"hlpltlNe
business proposition but "A useless one.
II is a fact tina his engineering party
went through "A -four months season
I'm those hills with no other meat h a
that killed along the route.
To organize parties suitably
eouipped and supplied regularly, to
survey the best possible line through
this isolated, practically unknown
country required "A knowledge Of
working conditions peculiar to the
N0TIn III dtlilNApii w u
edge Of what WAS to be done, The
Secretary OF the Interior and the
President hunted for IA man for this
railway commission who was mus
eouIpped and selected Thomas riggs,
Jr.. of the Boundary Survey. FOR
twenty years he has practised his pro-
fession as a civil engineer, and ten
of those years he has spent IN the
North,
II Is probable that there isn't an
engineer to-day as familiar with CON
ditions in northern Canada and Alaska
as Commissioners Riggs, for he mas
uyed in Northern wilds under every
condition. frori the rail laden Iaclhc
an the south 10 the iCehound Arctic
ON ,he north. He has taken every de
gree xnown to "A ~SourdouSh. III MN
ono ~ his men said on This trip: "Th"
chief Is one of the very few white men
that I know who can actually I'VE OH
the country without a II or supplies
If forced TO. 1t is u rare abllitS, 10
he found almost wholly among IN
dams
Mr.. Riggs IL the inventor or the
present highly improved tent now used
nv nearly all Government surveyors
which has caves to shed water can
yos floor and ventilatorS n is PROOF
against most of the evils that heset
he tent dwellor. a collapsihle folding
! table top Of his made that luxury pos
sible in every camp, big or little, close
nv or isolated. His packs are perf"c-
ton. his system to be seen everywhere
The cX-chicf If the Alaskan-'ina-
dian boundary Survey Is thorough, In
making the final location last uinmcr
across "A bit Of country ear Nenana,
the interior point at which the trunk