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Photo from U. S. Departmen 

 SURVEYING ON GOLD STREAM I ALASKA 



)£ the Interior 



The men in the picture are wearing mosquito veils. "Engineers and surveying parties 

 waded and swam the icy waters of glacial streams, hung suspended by ropes over high 

 precipices, and fought mosquitoes in the tundra of the lowlands and marshes, locating the 

 line" (see text, page 567). 



barges to the shore at high tide, let them 

 rest on the beach as the tide retreated, 

 and then unload and wait for the next 

 high tide to float them off for another 

 load. This practice involved delays in 

 unloading, and demurrage on steamers in 

 those waters is from $150 to $200 a day. 

 In constructing the temporary railroad 

 wharves cradles, or "gridirons," were 

 built alongside the docks, with pile foun- 



dations, over which the barges are floated 

 at high water, and upon which they rest 

 steadily as the tide recedes, the unload- 

 ing difficulties being diminished by hav- 

 ing the barges stationary while their con- 

 tents are being lifted out and placed on 

 the dock in nets or packages by the 15- 

 ton stiff-leg derrick. As the barges and 

 lighters may be moved on a mean tide 

 and taken off and onto the "gridirons" 



577 



