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THE TENSAS GAZET E Gamete u gCepany, Ltd. Official Paper a the Parish ef Tearw h d eerd and Finth maLee DiL $ A NEW ERIES.VOL. XXV ST. JOSEPH, LOUISIANA, FRIDAY, JULY 9, 1915 40 . - - - , ,I I 5 I I I IMigl M I I I M , .. ............... ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 1· 11 1 .. . .. . . .. . .. . . I i ,-•I iI•II l II II iN IN11111 1 • i III Iii I II U 1111 INil ll i I I m mIl , SRUNIN(iN tFý LIKE of UNCLE SAM'S SALASKA MA AD LITTLE less than a year ago the 5 United States government sent to Alaska a commission to direct the - W lsurvey for a government railroad reaching Inland and generally north from Resurrection bay to Fairbanks, a distance of some thing over 490 miles. One of the men chosen for this momentous task was Thomas Riggs, Jr., of the United States coast and ge edatic survey. Mr. Riggs was selected because Ki his tualiarity with the region and on account it the part he took in running the Alaskan-Ca atJaa boundary lne. finished but two years ago. Associated with Mr. Riggs in the railroad sru ra were Ieuat. Frederick Mears of the United . Sao army and William C. Edes. As a result ia. t 0e work done last summer and data previous - 1 a in the same territory by other ex pedLte1 s of the coast and geodetic srvey, the seat w to be followed is to ran in part along the leat01 sad the Cantwell rivers and through the bethilg of towering Mount McKinley. The prts predict great prosmperity for the whole t.ritory and declare that the ultimate cost of 4, 800,M for the system complete will be am / ompeaated for by reason of the resulting hatever may be the ultimate economic slg alAmes this governmentowned railroad in Alka, them should be no question about our sn.ent interest In the work done in running he preimintary survey and that which will later "IMw as the steel rails are led farther and fhrth r Mrthward i that rugged region. S past experince, it has been amply es tashihed that surveying In Alaska is apt to be deli it thrills. First, the open season Is a short eme and a great deal of action has to be erowded Is a brief period by the surveyor. His is not the task merely of the explorer who pushes ahead by the shortest route to his objective, but Lstuad Is that of choosing the easiest gradients ra the Intrusive locomotive, spanning the short eat valys and bridging the rivers or terrential . eams where the foundations or the approaches . hM built for the least amount of money com g lbes with present strength and durability. lame Of the most towering peaks in North ýAmarie are i southern Alaska. and from their eaw.elad shouldes in the spring and sum e the waters Sow seaward ia aret volume and with mth violenace Then the stricken timber to washed down into the flooded channels, and this wealth of logs rushes onward like a veritable bvala.she when the way is clear, or, what is re more menacing, these millions ea mighty tllet Jan in some narrow pass, peanning up the waters and themselves until raptured by the titanic forces they have halted for the while. Then as the Jam is broken onward tears the rearta stream sad the whirling tmber natil the broad reach of sme wide channels robs the toe rent of Its turbuleat fury. The surveyor have not only to avoid these " angers to planaing the right of way and the 4 olints for bridging, but their work will demand ,/ that they actually cross some of these streams when blasing the way for the lne. The waters am Icy and the currents swift, while means of rescue ar apt to be woefully scant. Mr. Riggs gas given as some spectacular In santes of the hasnads confronting the civii engd aeer in that part of the world, and what has been Sexperienced in the past up there is a pretty good Index o. thi dilculties to be faced in running tge line inland from the rail bead of the existing read, 71 mite long, which will form the nucleus of this grt government undertaking. But torrential rivers loaded with millions of logs are not the only forms of titanic masses with which the railroad builder in Alaska has to esant Thee arem the slow marching but trre slatibly advamelag mountains of feIe, the glaelrs. and some tf these have taken possession of the very valleys through which the railroad engineer would preferably choose to lead his line. Indeed, the Copper River and Northwestern railroad in Alaska gives a pretty good notion of some of the ddleulties to be faced by the surveyors and pro vided for oy the government when it comes to actunal onrruction. That road is 195 miles long and yet In that distance there are nearly 275 trestles, bridges, tunnels and fills. Indeed, there are sections where a mile of construction has east as much as $200,000. There Is a steel bridge flanked by two glaciers that cost a million and a half dollars to build. and before a bit of that structure was reared the engineers spent three years in studying the pecwliarities of those moving mountains of Ice. One of the most seriou phauses o- Alaskan sur vey work is the problem of transportation. As Mr. Riggs says, There is oeod to be carried for the party, which is a bi item, and eats for the bhres. At some time durin the ltfe of the Alakan boundar survy every known frso of , asportaton In the North was w I am lt we have been haown to adopt the lndisa .wpenetie and pack dogs. One year, at the closew of . we oumrneye down the White river tu a " eeaes of 1M miles en rafts, S mMAP a start was ade S Whe Ur ?~ ;t - i·: i.. I. horse, rst over a sbcalled wag n road where the six-horse wagons were frequently bogged or upset, add them after even that semblance of a road had disappeafed the 50 bores coastitutang our pack train were loaded with the camp outfit and supplies. Rivers and lakes were crossed at great risk on the rotten ioe. Seventeen days out from Whitehorse the party crossed the last remaininag ee bridge on the White river, and this was hardly accomplished ere the gorge broke throuh' with a report like that of a hundred can non and went swirling away in thE swollen wa ters of that stream." In running survey lines in that faraway re gion, Mr. Riggs says: "Rivers filled with danger ous quicksads have to be crossed, mountatns scaled at the risk of le and limb, and then comes drudgery of crossing the bottomless swamps of the low ling lands. Horses mire down one after another and lie there with their heavy packs mutely gamsg at the woraout packer, who after exhausting every known means to get the poor beast to its feet gives vent to his harrowed feelings in ornate blasphemy." The question of provisioes it a vital one, be cause they go astray at times or a cache may be riled by Indlans or wild anlmals. The civil ena gineears and their parties are seldom able to live upon the land. They have to depend upon their regular supplies, and mere than once a surveyor has been reduced to starvation rations and forced to make a harried trip back to the nearest base. Indeed, an instance of this sort occurred dur tf the boundary survey, and two men were dis patched back in a canoe by way of an unex plod river. They weet of with a little bread and a small allowance of biea-hardly esseh to last for, two days On they went, hoping to pick up the trail of a following relief party that had somehow been delayed. lrtunately, this was efected Just before the canoe turned an abrupt bend in the river. Around that bead the stream dipped into a pocket which probably would have meant certain death. True, in the lowlands of Alaska the summer is hot and the days long, but up in the mountains the arctic chill is felt, and the surveyors have to go provided with garments to meet thsse ex tremes, and above all must they have the sturdi est of boots in which to battle over that rug ged country. The surveyor must check his lines by suitable triangulations, and to do thi It will be necessary for him frequently to staad or climb where peril surrounds him well nigh on every side. Indeed. he will have to held on by his eyelids or be sqmething akin to a human fly, and besides etting himself there he must drag along his instruments. But the sun is not overklndly It Alaska, and there are heavy and well nigh continual rains, especially along the coast. The surveyor aslses upon every clear moment to take panoramie pie tures from definite points and from these, later in te shelter of his camp or the warmth of his wiatr oace back In elvillatles, he works out the topography of his line and plans the way for the engineers. In le of this, he must'toll algms as best he esn under the climatic hadesaps, and by meuas of the Ashing heliograph he seeds his signals afar iso the ease and talks wth his dp tait feiows. Thee is beides the smens of drss. This was b d I e casef the beud ry rve 5 P J .` ~~;:· i < }r ,.ý?.ý ynsa ~ F e 3P , when an epidemic of smallpox broke out among the Indians at Rampart House. "We gathered in all the Indians," said Mr. Riggs, "forced vacl nation on therb, isolated the diseased and Issued supplies to the whole tribe of about two hundred. Ninety-two of the natives developed the fever. - was an anxious time, "We put all of the infected Indians on an tsland in the Porcupine and took away their beats so they could not get away. A daily In spection was made. I used to carry a s ek cheap candy to bribe the kids to be iaspeetei. After a while they thought it reat fun. Re turning from among the infected Indians we would get Into an airtight tent, stick our heads out of an opening, while the whole interior was lled with the fumes of formaldehyde." During that expedition, sent out by the United tates government under the auspices of the United States coast and geodetic survey one of the best surveyors was stricken with pasumeda. The country was well nigsh barre and the only natural fedl, and that scanty, was in the ferm of scrub willows. The sick ma was virtually bound up in his sleeping bag. and for thrIe weeks was mnale, by himselt, to get out of hIs extem po ed bed. According to Mr. Riggs, "We gave him everything we had in the way of medilc and still be hcovered." Heroism and the tragei are apt to os bhand i hand in thus survey work, and yet the pubMi knows neat t nothing about the dangers reede by its servts in that tferway esion. Let -s cite a sinegle instance that oosued is o Of Mr. Rlggs' details. It seems a small party of his sageeatiss aaded on an Island in the Alaska river and hd the mis fortune to have their canoe swept away by a sudden rise of water. Binding a few sticks driftwood together to form a makeshit sfit use of the mea mased to work his way through the liy torrent to the neighboring mainland After three days of wandering over preclpitts moun tains and slippery glaciers e finally managed o crawl to e of the triangular stations or marks. He had wust astr t enough to pub the signal out of plumb e+a then fainted away. Happily thi bet Of the local party, some dis tance away, while pausing for the clouds to pass by chance turned his telescope toward the de ranged signal, and finding It out of line die patched some of his people In a canoe to restore it. In this manner the exhausted man was dis covered and a rescue party hastened away to the ad of his fellows a the Island. 7r that heroism in the line of duty the man that breasted that frigid stream became a physical and mental wreck. _ goerumet's ralway will opeup a very rle coutry. Aeaseg to experts the weaIk that has already bees shiped out of the regien is but the veriest semn*ebi from the serutes Sthis s tireoure ase of nature. but the road in its be g wie have to eoveres m mal difiul ties. The souse, s and sead red bsed that has been drawn us in runninga t so vey are ample eidesse f the sharaneir o tie obstacles that miut be alged with in inpiag s ties runa g the S am inging bridses e the line advanes. Evea a we isha hse maute in t0so me the audeent wit era se rmeee the abehas saeslb at 4W mpnle. SAMM UiAAt E vIcKB LER I)RONWOKS II CwI * ; NOTICE! i Asw .m etIn m£ J "s dw, o f and Wood Comis, Triaumsd AN Si.. i* tb AhWe. .4.e..i t, So fAl, earr a bs C.mme. hbin S* aks.m r IlOPOLD ELGUTTR H. C. Norman 'Photograph Studio " 524. '5IS . Nr, Aihe . -.la.I .. at R.e... . Raia T. bmQ ild ra e. & V mhu l a TWmes Gml e 0mm MALG.4IRM. s a , glt| Are ~ou Going to BuilM • I.r . = e Ia.m, 1 Wnis R C., nw * - - w ~E r tS. II - ** Rough and Duresd Intb r E h. 'A,1 CH Mm AdvertiseJ , ,vT ! t w ii " iw Y SWa i@ kWmuibr &Usamuu -*- to be Tom MVNw wad c.-- h I- .sW wo AivwW..r ... 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