PHOTOGRAPHY IN GLACIAL ALASKA 



57 



The experience gained in the summer 

 of 1906 made it possible to plan to meet 

 the conditions more adequately in 1909, 

 but the hurried outfitting which circum- 

 stances necessitated left no time for try- 

 ing out any of the outfit, and, in fact, 

 gave no opportunity for the inspection 

 of much of it until we arrived in the 

 field. In consequence it was found, for 

 example, that the front board of the 

 plate camera was not accurately centered, 

 and many pictures were taken which 

 were slightly out of focus on one side 

 before this defect Was noticed and recti- 

 fied as well as possible with the tools 

 available in the field. It is possible that 

 this defect was caused, or aggravated, by 

 the moisture of the air causing the wood 

 of the camera-box to swell and draw. 

 In any case, a difficulty such as this illus- 

 trates the value of a careful try-out of 

 apparatus before taking it into the field. 

 It may be worth while to remark, in this 

 connection, that in testing a kodak or 

 other hand camera it is well to see that 

 the focus for the 100-foot point of the 

 scale, or infinity mark, has been accu- 

 rately marked and gives sharp and clear 

 negatives. 



The difficulties attendant on loading 

 plate-holders under blankets (especially 

 as it is light all through the night at 

 this latitude in early summer) experi- 

 enced on the previous expedition led to 

 the purchase of the only dark-room tent 

 which could be found listed in the avail- 

 able catalogs. This tent, when examined 

 in the field, proved to be an afifair about 

 8 feet high and square, made up of black 

 duck with a lining of red cotton cloth, 

 the whole sewed up into a cube-shaped 

 sack which fitted over four corner-posts 

 and laid on a framework tying the posts 

 together. 



The flat top of this contrivance would 

 not shed rain, and, as we had no extra 

 fly, it was necessary to push up the top 

 with a center pole. Its ungainly appear- 

 ance earned it the name of the "dog 

 kennel" when first set up. Moreover, 

 the light which filtered through fogged 

 plates only momentarily exposed to it, 

 and, as the black duck faded almost im- 



mediately to a dingy brown, it soon 

 became altogether unsafe, and the old 

 blanket expedient had again to be re- 

 sorted to. However, it served as an 

 outer protection, making it possible to 

 load plates "by feel" inside a lidless 

 grocery box set up on end and lined and 

 heavily curtained with black cloth. 



It seems to the author that it would 

 be a both profitable and appreciated 

 enterprise for some photographic supply- 

 house to undertake the manufacture of 

 a trustworthy dark-room tent for use in 

 the field. Such a tent need not be large, 

 but it should have high walls, and, if 

 this necessitates a flat top, be provided 

 with a fly. The outer covering should 

 be of some water-proof material, such as 

 is used for buggy curtains, and it should 

 have a lining of fast-dyed red cloth. If 

 the outer covering of such a tent were 

 torn, under camp usage, it could readily 

 be mended and rendered light-tight by 

 the use of adhesive tape. A tent of this 

 kind would make the loading of plates 

 and their transference from the plate- 

 holders to the developing solution both 

 safe and convenient. The many scien- 

 tific parties which are working in Alaska 

 should alone make the enterprise profit- 

 able. 



The greatest pleasure of the summer's 

 work was afiforded by the convenient 

 method, and the highly successful results 

 attained by the use of the Eastman 

 Kodak Company's film and plate tanks. 

 Again and again the films came out of 

 the tank every negative on the strip per- 

 fect. Where this was not the case the 

 fault was very clearly shown to be with 

 the man who made the exposure. 



The same thing was true of the plate 

 tank, but in minor ways this has not been 

 perfected to work so conveniently as the 

 film apparatus. There ought, for exam- 

 ple, to be a series of perforations along 

 the edges of the bottom of the plate- 

 carrier, so that the end plates would 

 receive a better washing before trans- 

 ference from the pyro developer to the 

 hypo bath. As it is one must rinse very 

 carefully to avoid getting pyro stains on 

 the end plates. This trouble can be 



