THE SUEVEYORS AT WOEK. ' 69 



Erom the great bend of the Missouri at Kansas City, to 

 Port Wallace, we had gradually been ascending, until at 

 the Fort we were 3,275 feet above the sea, so that, as the 

 elevation of the Missouri at Kansas City is 710 feet, the 

 average rise per mile is 6-2 feet for the distance of 412 

 miles. 



On Monday, the 8tli of July, before tlie snn had risen, 

 and in a thick mist (the only one I eyer saw on the plains), 



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our line of wagons crept away from Fort 



Monday, July 8. J^ / -^ 



Wallace, first fording the stream, and then 

 winding about through the cliffs and broken country which 

 separate the valley on the south side from the more lofty 

 plateau beyond. Two days previously, the line of survey 

 had been run across this country for six miles, so that, as soon 

 as our wagons came to the end of this line, the engineer 

 corps commenced work, and continued it onward as fast as 

 possible* 



The ground had to be measured, stakes driven in at regular 

 intervals, and every undulation of the snrface had to be 

 accurately determined by means of proper instruments ; and 

 this had to be done j:hrough an Indian country, which was, 



m 



moreover, so dry that it was probable we should not find a 

 droj) of water along the whole seventy-two miles. The 

 greatest possible expedition was therefore requii-ed on the 

 part of the surveyors, and their achievements across this 

 country were really wonderful. There were under General 

 Wright, at that time, three parties or divisions, each capable 

 of ^^ running a line'' independently. At Fort Wallace, the 

 transit-man, leveller, and topographer of each division, had 

 obtained mules, and one of the wagons had been emptied of 



+ 



its contents; and devoted, for a time, to the surveyors. One 

 division commenced ^Y0^k, and the men were soon spread out 



