Winter Reconnaissance in California. 559 



fine until eleven o'clock. From eleven till three in the afternoon 

 the snow became sticky, the shoes loaded up badly, and the walk- 

 ing was difficult. After three o'clock the snow hardened again, 

 and the work was nearly as easy as in the morning. 



Right here there are two points about which questions will be 

 asked and which I want to explain, (i) How can the work be 

 tied to existing survey lines and corners with from four to eight 

 feet of snow on the ground, and, (2) How can diameters breast 

 high be obtained? As a matter of fact over two-thirds of the 

 work done was tied absolutely, — not to the exact corners, but to 

 the place where the corners should be between two, three or four 

 witness trees. In other words, in by far the majority of cases 

 the witness trees for the section and quarter corners were found, 

 and it was very easy to follow the old line blazes. In fact, our 

 compass and line work was done so accurate that we felt no 

 hesitancy in using corners and lines established during the winter 

 unless they were more than three miles from a corner, the witness 

 trees to which had been actually found on the ground. The fact 

 that so many corners were found and so many lines followed 

 was due to the settling of the snow around all trees. This point 

 may be illustrated by the following experience : A stake, mark- 

 ing a corner, was set so that it projected one and one-half feet 

 above the snow. Two hundred yards from this stake was a large 

 yellow pine, with a line blaze about six inches above the snow 

 level. One day after the stake was set, a new fall of snow 

 covered it entirely, but the blaze on the yellow pine (and other 

 blazes for two miles) was still visible. We found that it was 

 very easy to pace accurately with the webs — although we had, of 

 course, to be careful on account of changing snow conditions. 

 As a whole the chaining, pacing and compass work was easier 

 and more accurate on the snow than it was on bare ground in 

 the summer. 



The fact that old survey lines were followed, and witness 

 corners found — during a winter when there was more snow than 

 the "oldest inhabitant" remembers for twenty-five years — answers 

 the question of getting diameter at breast high. The snow is, 

 of course, of somewhat different depths on different exposures, 

 but if the depth is measured at the base of trees and an average 

 taken, I doubt if the estimate suffers materially. 



Another question which naturally arises is, "How far from 



