THE LIFE OF A FORESTER 85 
tricts the Land Office surveys have not been completed 
so if a classification of the land is desired a survey must 
first be made. The reconnaissance crew by means of 
transit and chain lay off the unmapped regions into 
townships six miles square, each township being later 
subdivided into thirty-six sections each of which is 
again divided into four quarter-sections of one hundred 
and sixty acres each and a map of the timber made 
while the lmes are being run. 
As described in the first chapter, most of Uncle Sam’s 
holdings are far back in the mountains, the best timber 
land having been acquired by the far-sighted lumber- 
man, so that life in a survey party may be rather soli- 
tary. The high elevations make the air invigorating 
but frosty and the men come out of the mountains at 
the end of the summer in perfect physical condition. 
In some forests a large amount of timber estimating 
is done in the wintertime. Ordinarily the activities 
of the forests slacken up at that season and if the 
ground is extremely brushy a snow cover makes winter 
travel much easier. In the mountains of California 
where winter reconnaissance has been tried the results 
have been quite good. The snowfall is very heavy 
and drifts form of almost unbelievable depths—forty 
to fifty feet is the depth ascribed to some drifts. Snow- 
shoes or skees of course are necessary and fast time 
can be make as long as the snow crust is hard, but 
woe betide the forester if he loses his shoe and falls, 
for a good floundering time is ahead of him. 
In practically any phase of work in the Forest 
Service hard physical work is the rule but the pleasure 
of life in the open, the invigorating mountain air, the 
occasional bunting and fishing trips—not so frequent 
as are imagined—give zest to the life and make the 
