38 THE LOG OF A TIMBER CEUISEE 



up. The going was hard and our wind as yet none 

 of the best, but we took things easy. 



I found pacing the hardest problem to solve. All 

 reconnaissance work is done on the basis of dis- 

 tance as measured by the cruiser's steps, and in 

 mountainous country this is no easy job. Every 

 one, in beginning, has to discover how many of his 

 paces will carry him sixty-six feet, or a chain the 

 unit of measurement -and how much to allow when 

 travelling up or down grades of various degrees of 

 steepness, since of course only the horizontal or air 

 line distance is considered. At first I couldn't get 

 it at all. And my map, despite Frazer's hints, was 

 hardly a thing of beauty. But before the day was 

 done I had learned what to do, if not how to do 

 it, and as the hours passed I found my timber esti- 

 mate and contours were approaching Frazer's some- 

 what more closely than in the beginning. 



By noon we had paced out a mile and a half 

 through a tier of six forties. We found ourselves 

 in a wooded canyon through which ran a small 

 stream, so we improved the opportunity by halting 

 for lunch and a smoke. 



This respite in the day's work is one of the 

 cruiser's most cherished privileges. Whether or 

 not the surroundings are as propitious as were ours 

 on this first day's run does not materially alter that 

 fact. Sometimes one stops on a brushy mountain 

 side or on the summit of a lofty pinnacle to stay the 

 faintness of hunger with his jam or jelly sandwich 



