THE ALASKAN TRIP BEGUN
It seemed to Roger that he was years older when he entered the gray
portals of the Geological Survey building in Washington and walked past
the big relief models on the wall, to face what he felt to be the
crucial question in his career--whether his season's work in the Survey
would merit his acceptance by Rivers for the Alaskan trip. He found his
official superior, Mr. Herold, engaged, and so went in to thank his
friend Mitchon for the interest that he had shown and the kindly letters
he had written.
It seemed quite home-like to him, entering once more the offices of the
Geological Survey, and he spent a pleasant half-hour chatting over his
experiences, his later excitements in the Pecos country arousing special
interest. He was about to go when his friend stopped him with a gesture.
"Wait till I come back," he said.
A few minutes later he returned, saying:
"The Director would like to see you for a moment." The boy looked up
with surprise, and the secretary continued reassuringly, "There's
nothing to be scared about, I don't think you'll consider it bad news."
Roger rose promptly and went to the Director's office, and the latter
shook hands heartily and motioned him to a seat.
"I think I ought to tell you, Mr. Doughty," he said, and Roger
straightened up at least one inch at the manly form of address, "that I
have received some reports from Mr. Herold, relating to the various
parties on which you have served, which touch on your progress in the
work. You will remember, of course, your meeting with the President?"
"Yes indeed, sir," answered the boy.
"This plan to secure trained workers by picking desirable material from
the colleges and schools, on which a well-known philanthropist was so
keen, has aroused no little interest in the Survey. As you were the
first to go out, I have been anxious to see how the scheme would
develop, and I was glad, a couple of months ago, to be able to tell the
President that Mr. Carneller's project was proving most successful." He
paused a moment. "It is but right to you to say," he continued, "that
you have fulfilled the hopes I had, and that your first year's work on
the Survey is a beginning of which I think you may be proud."
Roger flushed hotly at this praise, and seeing that the Director awaited
a reply, said simply:
"It is very good of you to say so, sir. I just tried to do my best."
"Of course," went on the Director, "you have a great deal to learn and
are very new in the work, so I don't want you to think for a moment that
you know it all--or for that matter, that you ever will. But those with
whom you have been speak approvingly of your obedience to the call of
duty and of your ability to continue hard work uncomplainingly. I am not
sure," there was a twinkle in the speaker's eye, "that making believe to
be lost when you are ensconced in the branches of a tree is particularly
conducive to discipline?" He waited for a reply.
Roger looked at him, and taking courage from the lurking smile,
answered:
"No, sir. But," he added, "perhaps as much so as a snipe-shoot."
"A fair answer," was the kind reply. "Well," continued the Director, a
little more authoritatively, "I am not at all sure that you will
achieve your desire to go to Alaska next season, though I should not
wish to go so far as to decide against it. In any case, Mr. Rivers, as
head of the Alaskan work, chooses his own men. It is not that I am
afraid of your not doing your best," he added, seeing the look of
disappointment on the boy's face, "but that I feel it might be a little
too much for you. The Alaskan work is a great strain for young bones."
"Not more so, sir, than crossing the Grand Canyon, is it?" Roger felt
emboldened to ask.
"Don't boast!" came the sharp rebuke, "I don't like it. But," he
continued, seeing the boy wilt under the criticism, "I merely desired to
see you to say that I am well pleased with your work, and that I hope
the college assistants, hereafter to follow, will prove equally
successful."
Roger left the office of the Director as though he were treading on air,
a feeling enhanced by the cordial reception accorded him by Herold, the
chief geographer. There he learned, to his intense delight, that he had
been appointed by Rivers on the Alaskan party, which was to spend the
entire spring and summer in a south to north reconnoissance of that
great Arctic territory.
"I was afraid," Roger said to the geographer, "from what the Director
said, that I would not get the appointment."
"Well," Herold replied, "Mr. Rivers seemed to feel that you were keen
for it, and figured that if it were given you, you would strain every
nerve to make good. But, you see, you will have to do your utmost to
justify the stand that Mr. Rivers and myself have taken."
"It won't be for want of trying, Mr. Herold," answered Roger, his eyes
shining.
"I am sure of that, my boy," said the older man kindly, "and that's what
we are depending on. Now, let me see, this is the second of December,
isn't it? Rivers sails from Seattle on February 15th, so that you had
better reckon on being there about the 12th. Suppose then, you go home
now for the holidays, take just a month, and report in Washington here
on January 2nd, a month from to-day. Then we'll give you a few weeks'
work here to learn something about headquarters, and then you can go
right on to the Pacific Coast, perhaps spending a day or two at home
before starting on the expedition."
Roger thanked him heartily, as much for his thoughtfulness about the
vacation as for the appointment he had desired so long. Indeed his
month at home, amid an air in which he was a sort of hero, passed
rapidly, and as the idol of all the boys in the neighborhood, he had to
spin yarns by the score, these tales being given reality by the dozens
of photographs he had taken on the various parties of which he had been
a member. Some of the photos were his own, but others were prints of
negatives taken by the assistant topographers usually, for nearly every
party in the field has some member whose skill makes him almost an
official photographer. Indeed, nearly every one on the Survey is a
master of photography, and few outfits do not contain at least one
excellent camera.
On his return to Washington in January, however, Roger found it somewhat
tedious to settle to indoor office work, but his interest grew in
finding that the department had in operation scores of other lines of
work that had not occurred to him. His surprise in the field at
constantly encountering new avenues of work became amazement in
Washington, when he first really gained an idea of the extent of the
department's scope.
On the question of maps alone, he learned how important the Survey is
to the country. Maps which should show a mining company in which
direction ore-bearing veins should run, maps which should inform a
railroad as to the comparative elevations along a proposed right of way,
maps which should teach a farmer where to sink an artesian well for
watering his stock, maps which form the basis of vast irrigation
projects, maps which point the builder where to go to quarry stone, maps
to form the basis of the special timber charts of the Forestry Service,
maps dealing with coal-producing areas, and for a score of other
purposes, for all these the Survey is called on.
And there, in Washington, the year through, Roger found expert and
skilled men making these maps, compiling them from the sketches made in
the field, correcting minor errors, comparing them with former data, and
producing works of exactitude and immense value. Some idea of the
exactness of the work was gained by the boy when it was pointed out to
him that in the Bureau of Engraving the printing of all this exact
drawing must be done in a room where the temperature and humidity are
the same the year round, since paper will shrink in a dry spell and
expand when moist, and the printing of such a map extending over a
period of months, might thus be made fractionally incorrect.
Then it dawned upon the lad that the libraries of scientific records of
which Survey workers are the authors must needs require time and labor,
and the compilation of statistics needed in other parts of the
government service also takes up time. So that Roger began to see that
the proofreading of all geologic and topographic maps, all illustrations
and all text of Survey papers have to be done and revised by competent
men, in order that the scientific accuracy of these can never be
impeached. He saw the scope of the annual reports, the monographs, the
professional papers and the bulletins, and was not surprised to learn
that these were in great demand, not only in the United States, but by
foreign governments as well.
"But all this," said Roger to his friend the secretary, as they were
talking together one day, "must cost the country a heap of money."
The other smiled.
"It has saved the country a great deal of money," he said. "In the first
place the Survey is very economically run, and then besides, millions
of dollars have been put into the hands of manufacturing interests by
pointing out to them the value of by-products which formerly were
wasted."
"For example, Mr. Mitchon?"
"Well, for example, the waste of the by-products of coke-ovens, such as
coal-tar, ammonia, etc.," replied the secretary. "Here, come with me to
the laboratories, and I'll show you."
In the large chemical and physical laboratories at Washington the boy
found samples of metals and minerals of all sorts being tested and
analyzed. He found that all the great works of the government are
undertaken only with the advice of the Geological Survey, and he
learned, moreover, that in certain branches the Chemical Laboratories
stand higher than those of any government in the world.
As each day passed the lad heard of some new activity of the Survey. He
learned that every ton of coal consumed and every ounce of gold mined,
was duly recorded by the Survey, and to his amazement discovered that
the due safeguarding of life in mines and quarries was not outside its
province. The refining of oil was regarded as appertaining to minerals,
and many difficulties of fuel in steam engineering the boy found to
have been minimized by the Survey in the power and lighting plants of
the government. And, if this were not enough, it was borne in upon him
that even such structural materials as brick, terra cotta and the
concrete bodies, had in some cases found their beginnings and in others
their best development under a further division of the Survey.
Then, to cap all, it was shown to Roger, that this multifarious work
required careful and prudent administration, supervising all the details
of personnel, expense, purchase, and distribution of supplies and so
forth, to say nothing of adjunct matters, like library and fossil work.
Thus it was, that when the boy left Washington a month later, he had
decided that an entire lifetime on the Survey would be all too little to
grasp the vast and dominating usefulness that it bore to the country at
large.
Thus the fated day arrived for Roger's start. He had made himself
well-liked all through the building, and there were many to wish him
luck on the expedition. A most hearty and cordial good-fellowship Roger
found to run through all departments, and the good wishes of his
superiors and companions were happy auguries for the start. The
Director, too, called him into his office and gave him a most
encouraging send-off, sounding no note of doubtfulness or regret, and
Roger felt, as he left Washington, that no boy could ask pleasanter
friends or more helpful comrades than those he had met on the Survey.
The chief geographer had accorded him an extra two days' leave in which
to go home before he need start for Seattle, and Roger was full of
pride, as his former schoolmates gathered around him to be able to speak
loftily of traversing "territory on which no white man had ever set his
foot." It was a little boastfully put, but as after events proved, it
was true none the less.
The journey across the continent gave time for reflection, and now that
there was no chance of drawing back, the warnings and advice that had
been given to Roger rushed over him like a flood, and he had for a while
a haunting fear lest anything should happen on the trail to shake the
confidence his superiors had in him. But these fears vanished like a
morning mist, when, arrived at Seattle, he went on board the gunboat,
lying a short distance from the shore, and realized that he, Roger, had
a right to board a vessel of the United States Navy.
Rivers was on deck, and he came forward promptly to meet the boy,
saying, as he shook hands:
"So you made good, didn't you, eh? Well, I thought you would."
Roger laughed quietly.
"You said I had to!" he replied.
The boy's new chief gave a half-smile.
"Well," he said, "if you always do everything I say you have to do, I'll
be quite satisfied. But it's not a summer picnic, by any means, and you
may be sorry before you're through."
"That may be, Mr. Rivers," answered the boy cheerily, "but I'm not sorry
yet. I'm mighty glad to be here."
"I've been sorry often enough that I took up field work, but----" he
paused.
"But what?" asked Roger.
"But I couldn't get back to it quick enough the next year," answered the
geologist.
"If the past summer is any test," went on Roger, "I guess I'll be the
same way, for I never enjoyed anything so much in all my life. Why, I
felt quite stifled back in Washington."
"If you've been caught with the exploring fever," rejoined the older
man, "there's nothing more to be said, for that's a disease for which
there is no cure, except----" He paused abruptly again.
"Yes?" queried Roger.
"Except old age, and that the explorer never reaches," was the steady
reply. "And now you must meet the rest of the boys."
He turned to the topographer, who was standing near.
"Mr. Gersup," he said, "this is the boy."
"I see it's a boy," answered the other, smiling, "but I didn't know it
was 'the' boy. I guess, Doughty, from the way Mr. Rivers talks, that
you're only just a trifle less important in the Survey than the
Director." He laughed out loud.
Roger broke in protestingly, but Rivers interrupted.
"Don't mind him, Doughty, he's always that way."
"Don't mind him either, Doughty," replied the topographer, "he's always
that way." And Roger thought it promised well for the cheerfulness of
the party to find the chief and the topographer on joking terms.
Later the boy found Gersup's cheerfulness and optimism to be invaluable
on the trip. He had a short, thick-set, stocky frame and possessed to an
extreme degree the power of seeing the best possible side of every
situation. His persuasive powers were so great that, as one of the party
said afterward, "he could talk a mule's heels down in the middle of a
kick!" He had an unerring eye for the topography of a country, as was
afterwards shown, and before they had been many days in Alaska, Roger
would have unhesitatingly declared both the geologist and topographer of
the party to be absolutely infallible in their own lines, though they
would both promptly have disclaimed any such statement.
The assistant topographer of the party, to whom the boy was next
introduced, was a great surprise. He looked like anything except what he
was. Not particularly prepossessing, he had a large head, already nearly
bald, he was slightly bow-legged and short and scant of speech. It was
not until weeks later that the boy found out why he had been selected
for the trip. His strength was herculean, and in spite of the fact that
he was not slightly built he could put a mountain goat to shame at
scaling an apparently inaccessible crag. As Magee, the Irishman of the
party, described him, "Tie his hands behind his back, and he'll climb up
the side of a house with his toenails and his eyebrows."
Of the two camp hands, one was an Indian called Harry, a fine specimen
of one of the famous tribes which successfully resisted Russian rule in
the early years, and who was regarded as one of the most expert
canoeists who had ever been in the Survey.
The other was Magee. And Magee was sufficiently described by his full
name, which was Patrick Aloysius Magee. He was a devil-may-care Irishman
from Galway, who had spent fifteen years in the gold camps, and had
tossed over the poker table and the faro layout the little bags of gold
dust that had represented years of weary work. It was not that hope had
died out in him, which made him leave prospecting and take to the
Survey, but in his own way of putting it, "There were too many men of
the female sex around the gold camps now." He had been a sailor for some
years, too, in the old sailing-ship days, and had left the sea because
of his contempt for steam.
As for the cook, his chief recommendation was that "he could cook an
eight-course dinner out of a pair of old boots, and make a man believe
he had had something to eat when he was still as hungry as when he sat
down." Altogether, Roger thought, as the little gunboat got under way
and steamed for Seldovia, near the southern bend of the Kenai peninsula,
a more aggressive body of men he had never met, and he determined to
hold up his end, no matter what should come.
The gunboat arrived at Seldovia on February 21st, and as the cable
rattled through the hawse-hole Rivers took command of the party. His
easy manner dropped like a mask, and orders sharp and incisive fell like
hail. All the supplies and equipment for the first part of the journey
had been sent there the summer before, and were being kept by the
storekeeper. No sooner were they ashore than Roger was told off with
Harry to "get the dogs," and the boy accordingly found himself before a
yard where twenty-two "huskies" were "yapping" and howling to their
hearts' content. Of these, six were "outside" dogs, imported from the
United States, usually mongrel mastiffs, and the other sixteen "huskies"
or native dogs, in this case nearly all Malemut, with a strain of
Siwash. The reason for the two kinds of dogs, Harry explained to Roger
in answer to a question, was that the outside dog is better as a leader,
as he is more intelligent and less mutinous, but that the bulk of the
work is to be done by native dogs as they require less food and care,
and having a dense pelt, like the wolf, endure hardship far better,
while on a rough trail they are less liable to fall lame.
The dogs being duly gathered together, the harness and sleds inspected,
Roger assisted his chief in checking over the supplies and seeing that
they were carried to the gunboat for transport to the other side of Cook
Inlet. Everything was found intact and as had been ordered, so that
little delay was sustained. The overseeing of these things, however,
took the entire day, but by evening the dogs were on board and
everything disposed for easy transhipment in the morning.
Bright and early the next day the gunboat got her anchor up and started
across the Inlet, seeking a landing-place as high up as possible. In
less than two hours from Seldovia the ice was reached, and arrangements
were made for a landing on the western side of the Inlet. A small bay,
which appeared on the charts as Snug Harbor, was chosen as the place
for debarkation, which by noon was under way.
The landing was not easy, owing to the ice along the banks, and Roger
got a foretaste of what was coming by having to jump overboard and wade
through the water, breaking the ice, to carry the supplies ashore. In a
short while everything was landed, to the satisfaction of Rivers, who
had not hoped to be able to run as far up the Inlet. There, standing on
the snow, with the dogs howling behind him, Roger stood beside the
chief, unheeding that he was cased in ice above the knees, and watched
the gunboat dip the Stars and Stripes once in token of farewell. The
Alaskan trip was begun.