MARCUS BAKER. 
279 
months, during which time two mails from civilization were 
received. The country was generally regarded at that time 
as a wilderness of ice and fog. The scientific party com¬ 
prised four persons, of whom one was an “ astronomical 
aid ” in the terminology of the Coast Survey. For the first 
cruise, lasting from August, 1871, to November, 1872, a 
pupil of Watson’s had filled this post. No one was likely to 
volunteer for it after Mr. Harrington’s resignation unless 
he was possessed of a more than usually adventurous tem¬ 
perament and a real interest in the work for which the 
party was organized. The authorities of the Survey again 
applied to Watson, who cordially recommended Mr. Baker, 
and^in March, 1873, he left Ann Arbor for Washington, 
where he received his commission and instructions. Shortly 
afterward he joined the party in San Francisco, and sailed 
for Alaska on the surveying cutter Yukon April 28, reach¬ 
ing Unalaska, in the Aleutian Islands, on the 20th of May. 
Penned up for months together in a little cabin, one soon 
comes to know the inmost qualities of one’s associates. The 
conventional barriers of life in civilized regions are absent, 
and a man stands on his actual merits as a social being. 
Baker’s first glimpse of the ocean was taken through the 
Golden Gate. His unaffected interest in the novel sur¬ 
roundings, lively enthusiasm, kindly and cheerful nature, 
and absence of egotism captured the affections of all his 
companions, and the friendships which sprang up between 
them in every instance endured unshadowed and unbroken 
until severed by death. 
Well grounded in mathematics and theoretical astron¬ 
omy, he soon mastered the difficulties of the transition from 
theory to practice in field astronomy. The work was very 
different from the ordinary surveying as carried on in an 
average climate. 
The stars were invisible a large part of the summer owing 
to the high latitude. The sun was almost constantly veiled 
by fog or clouds, and advantage had, to be taken of every 
gleam of sunshine to obtain the most simple and neces- 
