22 THE LOG OF A TIMBER CRUISER 
This having all been settled we started work next 
morning. Jackson showed us the re-established cor- 
ner near his station, where the baseline was to begin. 
We all went along this first day to get an idea of how 
the line was run, but the crew selected by the chief 
for this department did most of the work. 
The baseline crew consisted of three men. To 
Wallace was assigned the unenviable position of in- 
strument man. It would be his privilege, in addi- 
tion to his regular duties of using the instruments 
and making the necessary computations, to carry the’ 
plane table and alidade all day on his shoulders, a 
task irksome at best and in rough going an almost 
intolerable burden. Nevertheless he subsequently 
toted his unwieldy outfit well over a hundred 
miles of baseline before the season ended, to say 
nothing of the walks from camp to work and back; 
and no one in all that time ever heard him register 
so much as a whisper of complaint or self-sympathy. 
Conway was chosen rodman. His duty was to go 
ahead and set up his stadia for each ‘‘shot,’’ as a 
reading of the alidade was termed, on the spot he 
thought would afford the best sight for the instru- 
ment man. His post required a person of consider- 
able discretion, according to Frazer, since the longer 
and more direct each shot could be made the quicker 
would be the progress of the work. 
An axeman was needed to complete the ‘‘baseline 
bunch,’’ to blaze the line, set stations for cruisers 
and cut out brush or small trees when this was 
