Method of Reconnaissance on the National Forests 75 



were so rough and unsettled that pack horses had to be used. 

 The crews were composed chiefly of students studying for- 

 estry, a cook, and a Forest Assistant in charge. Occasion- 

 ally Forest Eangers and Fire Guards would form a part of 

 the personnel. From the main camp in which the crew was 

 located all the immediately surroundingly country was worked 

 Miid the camp could then be moved to new territory. It often 

 was necessary to send out a part of the crew to ;a side camp 

 for a few days to work out inaccessible country or to get 

 scattered sections not included within the body of the forest. 

 When trips of this sort were necessary, it was customary for 

 each man to pack his blankets and provisions on his back. 



In subdividing the areas for reconnaissance, the govern- 

 ment survey system was used. Thus in surveyed country, 

 section corners were used from which to work, while in un- 

 surveyed territory base lines were used. These lines were 

 usually meandered in order to keep to some trail or valley. 

 AVhere base lines were necessary, it was the custom to keep a 

 base line crew in the field establishing corners for the esti- 

 mating crew to work from. These corners were temporary 

 and in some cases more or less permanent, and were estab- 

 lished at such points that the work would conform with the 

 government system of surveys, and thus estimates were ob- 

 tained for forties, quarter-sections, etc. These base line 

 stations were made permanent on some of the forests because 

 they would have future value in case of timber sales, home- 

 steads, mineral claims, etc. 



On some forests the country had been surveyed so many 

 years ago, that the majority of the section corners were 

 missing. In such cases short base lines were run from those 

 corners that could be found. These short lines demanded 

 none of the great accuracy required for the base lines in the 

 unsurveyed country, but were run with Jacob staff and com- 

 pass by men of the estimating crew. 



The methods used in estimating were of two general 

 kinds, known as the "strip" and the "sample plot" methods. 

 The former consists of estimating the timber on a strip one 

 chain, or rarely two chains, wide. The one-chain strip when run 

 through the center of a forty gives a rectangular area one 

 chain wide and twenty chains long, which contains two acres, 



