THE FIRST DAY'S WORK 21 



and arcs with degrees measured off on them, and a 

 thin flat metal base about two inches wide and twelve 

 long. The stadia rod, which would be carried in ad- 

 vance, to sight upon through the telescope part of 

 the alidade, was just a long straight slab of light 

 wood an inch thick, four inches wide and twelve feet 

 long; with a strip of linoleum, painted across with 

 red stripes an inch apart and having black numbers 

 to mark the feet, tacked on one side. 



Aided by a general map of the forest and Jack- 

 son's familiarity with conditions in his district, 

 Frazer succeeded at length in drawing up a sort of 

 baseline itinerary, subject of course to frequent 

 changes in the field as conditions should later dic- 

 tate ; though our immediate plans were fairly simple. 

 Kingston lies, as I think I said, at the foot of the 

 eastern slope of the Black Eange, some four miles 

 from the top of the range and about three quarters 

 of the way along the range from the Datil boundary. 

 So it was decided to work the short southern end of 

 the range first. The baseline Frazer proposed to 

 carry at once from where we were to the top of the 

 main ridge, straight away. Then south along the 

 top, while the cruisers worked east and west from it 

 until we reached the southern limit of timber. 

 There the proposed course swung westward in a 

 horseshoe curve and turning north again tapped 

 the timbered country on the west side of the range, 

 over the divide, until we got far enough north to 

 come abreast of our first camp west of Kingston. 



