22 THE LOO OF A TIMBER CRUISER 



This having all been settled we started work next 

 morning. Jackson showed us the re-established cor- 

 ner near his station, where the baseline was to begin. 

 We all went along this first day to get an idea of how 

 the line was run, but the crew selected by the chief 

 for this department did most of the work. 



The baseline crew consisted of three men. To 

 Wallace was assigned the unenviable position of in- 

 strument man. It would be his privilege, in addi- 

 tion to his regular duties of using the instruments 

 and making the necessary computations, to carry the 

 plane table and alidade all day on his shoulders, a 

 task irksome at best and in rough going an almost 

 intolerable burden. Nevertheless he subsequently 

 toted his unwieldy outfit well over a hundred 

 miles of baseline before the season ended, to say 

 nothing of the walks from camp to work and back; 

 and no one in all that time ever heard him register 

 so much as a whisper of complaint or self-sympathy. 



Conway was chosen rodman. His duty was to go 

 ahead and set up his stadia for each "shot," as a 

 reading of the alidade was termed, on the spot he 

 thought would afford the best sight for the instru- 

 ment man. His post required a person of consider- 

 able discretion, according to Frazer, since the longer 

 and more direct each shot could be made the quicker 

 would be the progress of the work. 



An axeman was needed to complete the "baseline 

 bunch," to blaze the line, set stations for cruisers 

 and cut out brush or small trees when this was 



