24 THE LOG OF A TIMBER CEUISEE 



curacy at each corner we passed throughout the day. 

 But though a part of the Black Kange country had 

 been surveyed sometime in the dim and distant past, 

 corners were scarce as hens' teeth, not worth look- 

 ing for, and a baseline was eminently necessary if 

 we were to know at all " where we were at." 



To return to our first shot. When the plane table 

 was set up, the township plat tacked on, and the posi- 

 tion of our corner marked, Wallace carefully re- 

 moved the alidade from its case and set it on the 

 table. Then he placed a Forest Service regulation 

 compass on a corner of the table, its sides flush with 

 the two sides of the table that joined at the corner, 

 and fastened it in place with thumb tacks. He then 

 "orientated" the compass by turning the table, that 

 is, made the sights of the instrument point due east 

 so that the sides of the table faced squarely south, 

 north, east and west. The oblong metal base of the 

 alidade was placed so that the telescope of the in- 

 strument pointed northward, in the direction we 

 wished to go, and the rear right hand corner of the 

 base was set accurately at the point which marked 

 the section corner where we were at the time, the 

 reason for which will appear presently. 



Conway had in the meantime gone forward as far 

 as he could without being hidden by brush, trees, 

 rocks or the conformation of the ground. After 

 waving him into the field of the telescope by a set of 

 prearranged signals, Wallace then sighted at the 

 stadia rod through the lens, and by various manipu- 



