MARKING THE ALASKAN BOUNDARY 



603 



Photo by G. C. Baldwin 



NEAR THE BOUNDARY CROSSING OF THE WHITE RIVER 



The straight line shows how the 141st meridian disregards the comforts of the surveyors. 

 Mount Natazhat shown in hazy outline a little to the right of the boundary 



that "it always storms on Sunday," but 

 every storm does not bring a Sunday. 

 Camps can be moved in a storm, and 

 the topographer carries a small silk 

 covering shaped like an umbrella to rig 

 over his plane-table for showers, while 

 the observer on triangulation has a small 

 silk "dog" tent into which he may crawl 

 until the rain is over. 



Pack trains are constantly on the move, 

 carrying their heavy loads of outfit sup- 

 plies, while the picturesque language of 

 the Western packer makes known the 

 physical and psychic shortcomings of 

 each and every animal. 



Usually bases of supply are established 

 at certain known points before the 

 opening of the season. These are called 

 "caches." Mistakes in the locating of a 

 cache are sometimes made, and last season 

 one surveyor in consequence of such a 

 mistake was without food for two days, 

 finally reaching another camp in rather 



disheveled condition. It so happened 

 that this other party was moving south 

 toward the same cache and was on short 

 rations ; so nothing remained to do but 

 beat a hurried retreat 60 miles north- 

 ward, arriving at another base with belts 

 pulled in to the last notch. 



To give some slight idea of the amount 

 of work accomplished in a season, the 

 American and Canadian parties along 

 the 141st meridian, during the season of 

 1908, located main points on the bound- 

 ary for 85 miles, completed 77 miles of 

 triangulation, a belt of topography 65 

 miles long, cut 40 miles of vista, ran some 

 250 miles of levels, and set 17 monu- 

 ments. 



While getting in to work is quite a 

 problem, getting out is nearly as serious. 

 It may happen that most of the horses 

 have died during a season. A small 

 party of packers then drive out the sur- 

 viving animals, while the main party 



