208 GLOSSARY 
Chain 
“An instrument consisting of links, used by surveyors 
in measuring land.’’—Webster. The chain commonly 
used is Coulter’s chain, which has one hundred links 
each 7 93499 inches in length, making the total length 
four rods or sixty-six feet. Hence, a measure of that 
length. 
Contour 
The line in which a horizontal plane intersects a por- 
tion of ground, or the corresponding line in a map or 
chart. 
Cowpuncher 
The same thing as a cowboy, which the dictionary says 
is ‘‘one of an adventurous class of herders and drovers 
on the plains of the Western United States.”’ Only 
for some reason no puncher will answer to the epithet 
‘“cowboy,’’ while if you called him a herder or drover 
he would undoubtedly grow vexed and perhaps ‘‘bow 
up.’’ Cowpuncher is much the most respectable word 
of the lot. And ‘‘punching’’ cattle, it may be added, 
is a very reputable and businesslike business nowadays, 
whatever it may once have been. Also the adventure 
element—in the sense of romance—is found chiefly 
between the covers of works of fiction. 
Cruiser 
‘When used to describe a man who estimates the number 
of board feet in standing timber on a given area, it 
means the members of our reconnaissance party— 
excepting the packers and the base line crew. In the 
dictionary a colloquial meaning is given—‘‘to cruise is 
to wander hither and thither on land.’’ That suggests 
our work by antithesis, because we did exactly the 
opposite, travelling always in a straight line by the 
compass and only wandering, when we had the time 
to wander at all, mildly and in our minds. 
