Boy With the U. S. Survey Read online

  CHAPTER I

  A START AT THE CAPITAL

  "Mr. Rivers?"

  The Alaskan explorer and geologist looked up from his desk and took inwith a quick glance the boy, standing hat in hand beside the door,noting with quiet approval the steady gray eye and firm chin of hisvisitor.

  "Yes?" he replied.

  "I'm Roger Doughty," explained the lad sturdily, "and Mr. Herold told methat I should find you here."

  "And what can I do for you?"

  The boy seemed somewhat taken aback by the direct question, as though hehad expected the purpose of his visit to be known, but he answeredwithout hesitation.

  "I understood from Mr. Herold that he had spoken to you about me. I wantto go to Alaska."

  "You mean on the Survey?"

  "Yes, sir."

  "Your father wrote to me some time ago that you would be coming. Hesaid, if I remember, that you had been nominated one of the new fieldmen under that college scholarship plan."

  "I think I am the first, Mr. Rivers," answered Roger with a smile.

  "Sit down," said the elder man; then, as the boy hesitated, "just putthose books on the table."

  The table in question was covered with an immense map showing the vastunexplored and unsurveyed regions of Alaska, that far northern portionof the United States which is equal in size to all the States west ofthe Mississippi and north of Mason and Dixon's line.

  "Mr. Herold spoke of the plan to me," continued the explorer, "but hegave me few of the details. Tell me, if you can, just how the project isto be worked."

  "I don't know for certain, Mr. Rivers," replied the boy, "but so far asI can make out, it is this way. You see, Mr. Carneller gave a large fundto get some special boys into the government bureaus to give a chancefor the upbuilding of the personnel while still young, and this planwas indorsed in Washington. The scholarship paid everything for twoyears and gave the usual two months' vacation beside, giving also aliberal allowance for personal expenses."

  "And you say this plan is now proceeding?"

  "I heard that it was to be tried this first year only in two or threeschools. I guess I was lucky, because they started out with us."

  "But how does your father like the idea of your roughing it? In the dayswhen I knew him, he believed in keeping his boys near home."

  "He wants me to stay, but, you see, Mr. Rivers, I always wanted to getout and do something, and city life isn't what it's cracked up to be. Iwant to be doing things worth while, things that will tell in the longrun, and this poking over columns of figures in a stuffy office doesn'tsuit me worth a cent when I'm just aching to get out of doors."

  The explorer's grave expression relaxed into a half-smile at the boyishbut earnest way of describing the feeling he himself knew so well; buthe felt it his duty to put bounds to that enthusiasm. Before he couldspeak in protest, however, Roger continued:

  "I know what you're going to say, all right, Mr. Rivers. I know there'sjust as good work done nearer home as there is far away in Alaska orthe Bad Lands or any of those places, but why can't that work be done bythe fellows who like to hang around towns? I don't, that's all, and thewhole reason I went in for that scholarship and won it"--these lastwords with an air of conscious pride--"was just so that I could get intoreal and exciting work."

  "If it's work you're after, you've come to the right place, Doughty,"was the prompt reply, "but it's more laborious than exciting."

  "Why, I thought it was full of excitement!" exclaimed Roger.

  "Not especially. The work follows a regular routine on the trail, justas it does anywhere else. It isn't so much the ability to face dangerthat counts in the Survey, as it is the willingness to doconscientiously the drudgery and hard work which bring in the realresults."

  "No getting lost and wandering over frozen tundra until nearly at thepoint of death, and then being rescued just in time?" asked the boybreathlessly, his mind running on an exciting book which had occupiedhis thoughts a few hours before.

  "No!" The negative was emphatic. "The Alaskan parties are composed ofpicked men, all of whom have had considerable experience and who don'tget lost. And if, by any chance, they are late in getting into camp,they know how to shift for themselves. Besides, the chief of the partyis ever on the alert for the welfare of his men."

  "But aren't there really any snowslides, or rapids, or forest fires, orbears, or anything of that sort?" cried the boy in a disappointed tone."Surely it isn't as tame as all that?"

  "I wouldn't go so far as to call it tame," responded the head of theAlaskan work; "no, it's not tame, but you can't expect a differentadventure three times a day, like meals. We don't go out to findadventures, but to do surveying, and are only too thankful when the workgoes ahead without any interruption. But of course little incidents dooccur. I was considerably delayed in scaling a glacier once, and you'rebound to strike a forest fire occasionally, but things like that don'tworry us. Rapids are a daily story, too, and of course there are lots ofbears."

  "Lots of bears!" exclaimed Roger, his eyes lighting up in the discoverythat the days of adventure had not yet all passed by, "have you everbeen chased by a grizzly bear?"

  "Worse than that!" The old-timer was smiling broadly at his would-befollower's interest, being roused from his customary semi-taciturnity bythe boy's impetuous enthusiasm. "I thought a Kodiak bear had me onetime."

  "Worse?" The boy leaned forward almost out of his chair in excitement."Is a Kodiak bear fiercer than a grizzly? Do tell me about it, Mr.Rivers!"

  "Oh, there wasn't much to it, I got away all right." Then, with intentto change the subject, he continued, "but about this desire of yours togo to the field----"

  "Please, Mr. Rivers," interrupted Roger, his curiosity overcoming hissense of politeness, "won't you tell me about the bear?"

  The bushy brown eyebrows of the explorer lowered at the interruption,but the boy went on hastily:

  "I've never met any one before who had even seen a real bear loose, muchless had a fight with one. I don't want to seem rude, but I do want tohear it so much."

  "You are persistent, at least, Doughty," answered the other, with asuspicion of annoyance in his manner, "but sometimes that's not such abad thing. Well, if you want to hear the story so much I'll tell it toyou, and perhaps it may show the sort of thing that sometimes does comeabout on the trail. It was this way:

  "Some four years ago, the Survey sent me on a trip which included themapping of a portion of the foothills of the Mt. St. Elias Range. It isa rugged and barren part of the country, but although rough in theextreme, no obstacles had been encountered that hard labor and longhours could not overcome. It was a packing trip and everything hadprogressed favorably, there was plenty of forage, the streams had beenfairly passable, and we feasted twice a day on moose or mountain sheep.For days and weeks together we had hardly been out of sight of caribou.They had a curious way of approaching, either one at a time or else inquite large bands, coming close to the pack-train, then breaking awaysuddenly at full gallop and returning in large circles. Even the crackof a rifle could not scare them out of their curiosity, and we nevershot any except when we needed meat.

  "One day I got back to camp with the boys a good deal earlier thanusual, somewhere about four o'clock. We had started very early thatmorning, I remember, trying to gain a peak somewhat hard of access. Itwas difficult enough, so difficult in fact, that the trial had to beabandoned that day, as we found it could only be approached from theother side. Of course our arrival sent George, the camp cook, into themost violent kind of a hurry. He mentioned to me, as I remembered later,that he had shot at a Kodiak bear somewhere about noon, and though hehad found tracks with blood in them, he did not believe that he hadwounded the bear sufficiently to make it worth while to track him. ButGeorge was hustling at top speed to get dinner, and no one paid muchattention to him, I least of all, for I was trying to figure out thebest way to climb that peak next day.

  "After dinner, it was still early, and as I was anxious to get a
line onthe geology of the section, in order to determine how far the volcanicformation of the Wrangell mountains intrudes upon the St. Elias Range, Ithought an hour would be well spent in investigating. I was not goingfar from camp, so, as it chanced, I took nothing with me but mygeological hammer. About a mile from camp I found a sharp ravine, and Iwanted to see whether the granodiorite, which I could see in the wallsof the ravine, extended its whole depth. I scrambled down into theravine, making observations as I went, until the cleft ended in a sortof dry lake bed, shaped like a deep oval saucer. Steep declivities ranupward from the rim of this depression in every way but two, the ravinedown which I had come and a creek bed running to the south. Beingdesirous of tracing the origin of this unusual configuration, Iscrambled to the edge, breaking through a clump of bushes on my way.

  IN THE HOME OF THE KODIAK BEAR.

  The pack-train on its way to the camp, where chief of party narrowlyescaped death.

  _Photographs by U.S.G.S._]

  "As I did so, I was startled by a deep and vicious growl which seemed tocome from my feet, and before I realized what the cracking of thebrushwood meant, the cook's story came back to me, and I broke for theravine. I was too late! There, in the path down which I had come, hismuzzle and paws red with the blood from the deep flesh wounds he hadreceived, and which he had been licking in order to try to assuage thepain, stood an immense Kodiak bear. The Kodiak is not as ferocious asthe grizzly, but this beast was maddened by the pain of his wound, andby the suspicion that I had followed to work him further ill. My slightgeologic pick was of no avail against the huge brute, my road of escapewas cut off, and the bear was advancing, growling angrily. I broke andran for the rim of the lake, hoping to be able to encircle it andreturn to the opening of the ravine by which I had entered, and as I ranI heard the bear charge after me.

  "At the edge I paused, but there was no path along the former beach, andhaving no alternative I slid down the debris into the lake bed. Blindwith rage the bear followed, and for a moment he seemed to have me athis mercy. A hundred yards further on, however, some slender bushes grewout of the shelving bank and with the bear but a few yards behind Ileaped for these. Had I missed my grasp, or had they been torn fromtheir slender rooting the story would have ended right there. But theyheld, and I reached the level of the old beach, leaving my pursuermomentarily baffled below. I lost no time in reaching the ravine, and Ithink I pretty nearly hold the speed record in Alaska for that half-mileback to camp."

  "And the bear?" queried the boy.

  "I'm on the Geological Survey, not in the wild animal business," was theready answer, "and I left that bear alone. I never hunt for trouble."

  "And shall I see those bears if I go up with you this summer?" askedRoger.

  "Likely enough you will see them if you go up to Alaska, but that willnot be this summer."

  "Why not, Mr. Rivers?"

  "That work needs trained men, as I told you, and you know nothing of theSurvey yet. Besides, you will be sent where Mr. Herold thinks best, notwhere you prefer to go."

  "And I had hoped to see Alaska this summer!" cried the boy dejectedly.

  "That could not be in any case; all the parties have started already,"replied the older man. "You see, in order to make use of every day ofthe short Alaskan summer, the men start early in the spring when a longtrip is planned, so that they will be at the point of start when thebreak-up comes."

  "Then I am too late after all!" said Roger, with the most acutedisappointment.

  The experienced Alaskan explorer smiled.

  "Doughty," he said, "you should realize that you could not possibly havegone up with us this year. Minutes are too precious on the northerntrails to spend any of them teaching the routine of camp life or theduties of the Survey. We take absolutely no men who are not experienced.But, besides that, this year would not be the one in which you wouldwish to go, since the parties now up there are surveying small sectionsof territory to fill up gaps in the more populated areas."

  "Then there is no chance for me?"

  "Not this summer. But Mr. Herold did tell me that he had seen you, andperhaps there may be an opportunity later for you to get into theAlaskan work."

  Roger bent forward eagerly to find out what was coming.

  "If, therefore, you make good in the Survey during the coming year, Imight take you with me next summer, in what is going to be one of themost interesting Alaskan trips ever undertaken, wherein I am going tomake a reconnoissance of Alaska from south to north, beginning at CookInlet and working through to the Arctic Ocean. It will be my personalparty, and because the distance is so great it will have to be a forcedmarch every day without a break. That needs toughness, and of course Iknow nothing of your powers of endurance. One weak man in the party, yousee, might delay us so that we would not reach the Arctic until afterthe freeze-up and then there would be no getting out."

  "I may not be very big, Mr. Rivers," said the boy with a consciousgesture, "but I strip well."

  The echo from the athletic field sounded strange in that office so fullof the actualities of life, and even Roger himself laughed at the wayhis words sounded.

  "I mean," he added, "that I was always able to do good track work andhad lots of wind."

  "You need more than that. You need muscle and grit. I think you'll do,Doughty," the explorer continued, "but if you want the chance of goingwith me next spring, you've got to make a reputation for yourself in theSurvey. Learn your business as a rodman and so forth, become able topack a vicious mule, know how to swim an ice-cold river with a six-milecurrent, get so that you can swing an ax and build a bridge, be anexpert canoeist in a boiling rapid, sit anything with four legs thatever was foaled, accustom yourself to sixteen hours on the trail and topicking out the soft side of a rock to sleep on, grow to likemosquitoes, and by that time you'll be about ready for the Alaskantrail. But it's no job for a weakling."

  "Those are just the very things I want to be able to do," answeredRoger.

  "I suppose you think because those seem to imply adventure that it willbe all very pleasant in the learning, but there is another factorinvolved. We can find a hundred boys and men who are ready to facedanger and hardship to one who will face the drudgery of every-dayexistence at the desk or in the field. It is not the shooting the rapidswhich is difficult, but it is the days of heart-breaking toil in packingaround the rapids that test the man. Physical courage has ever been oneof the cheapest of commodities, and if we needed only this in our work,it would not be so difficult to fill the ranks with the kind of men thework demands. My own experience would lead me to believe that what weneed in the Geological Survey is the 'staying' rather than the 'dashing'qualities. And you must remember that even if you do come with me nextyear, there's no pull in it to bring you a sinecure, the chief of aparty has entirely a free hand in the selection of his assistants, andtheir value for the work is almost the only consideration. If you come,it will be practically as a camp hand, just to do what you're told,whether it is what you want to do or not. Work on the Survey needsbackbone."

  Roger's jaw set hard.

  "You can enroll me on that party of yours, Mr. Rivers," he said withdetermination, "and I'll be with you to the last ditch. I'm notaltogether a city boy, I've roughed it a good deal, and by the timeyou're ready to start I'll be as hard as nails. I don't care whattrouble it takes, I'm bound to go!"

  The older man rose from his seat and put his hand on the boy's shoulder.

  "You've the right spirit, Doughty," he said, "and I expect I'll be ableto take you. You'd better go down and see the Director and he will getyou started, so that you can begin to get ready to come with me nextspring. No, on second thoughts," he added, "I'll go down with youmyself."

  Chatting pleasantly, the two took the elevator to the second floor ofthe Survey building, where was located the Director's office, and asJohn, the old colored hallman, told them that the chief was engaged,Rivers led the way into the big room, where Mitchon, the Director'ssecretary, had his desk.
/>   "Well, Roger," said the latter, for he had met the boy before he hadgone up to the Alaskan geologist's office, "did you find out a lot ofthings about Alaska?"

  "Quite a number, Mr. Mitchon," answered the boy.

  "And are you still as anxious to go as ever?"

  "More!"

  The chief of the northern work put his hand on the boy's shoulder. Then,greatly to the secretary's surprise, for he knew how rarely Rivers couldbe got to talk, the geologist recounted with gusto his endeavors todissuade the boy by representing the hardships of the trail and how eachsuccessive obstacle had but deepened the lad's purpose; and when he toldof Roger's determination to acquire in a few months all theaccomplishments and virtues of an old-time woodsman, Rivers's short andinfrequent laugh found vent.

  "And I tell you what, Mr. Mitchon," he concluded, just as two visitorsentered the room, "that's the kind of boy these United States want!"

  On seeing the Director and his guest, the secretary, who had beenleaning back in his swinging chair listening with great amusement andzest, sprang to his feet, but before he could say anything the visitorbroke in with warm, enthusiastic tones.

  "And that's the kind of lad I like to know. Shake hands, my boy, andtell me your name."

  "Roger Doughty, sir," answered the boy, wincing a little under the grip.

  "The first of the Carneller nominees," put in the Director.

  But the guest had turned, and after greeting the secretary, spoke toRivers, who still had one hand on the boy's shoulder.

  "I think I met you with reference to Alaska," he said readily, "but I donot recall your name."

  "Rivers, Mr. President," answered the geologist.

  "Mr. President!" Roger felt almost suffocated with joy at hearing thatthis praise of him had come direct to the ears of the President of theUnited States.

  "I am delighted, Mr. Rivers, delighted," said the President, "to havethis opportunity of seeing you again, and to hear you approve this newplan so heartily."

  "I didn't approve of it at all, Mr. President," answered Rivers withcharacteristic abruptness, "but this boy has converted me."

  "Tell the President the story, Mr. Rivers," suggested Mitchon.

  "I had been pointing out to the lad," accordingly said the geologist,"how exceedingly strenuous is the work on the Alaskan trail, how thatnone but picked, experienced men of iron constitution and frontierpowers of endurance could carry out the work, and how one weak man inthe party might cripple the entire season's trip."

  The President nodded.

  "That is absolutely true," he said; "that is why so many hunting tripsare failures when there is a large party along. But I interrupt."

  "So I urged that he must get a reputation before coming with me. As faras I can remember, I said to him, 'You must first learn your business asa rodman and so forth, be able to throw a diamond hitch over a viciousmule, climb a peak with no firmer hand-hold than your finger-nails willgive you, learn to swim a glacier-fed river with a six-mile current,ride any brute that ever was foaled, run every kind of rapid in any sortof a canoe, find out how to swing an ax and build a bridge, be able tofind your way over the most rugged country in the vilest weather or on apitch-black night, get used to sixteen hours on the trail, and topicking out a soft rock to sleep on, chum up with grizzlies and grow tolike mosquitoes, and by that time you will be ready for the Alaskantrail.'"

  The President burst into a hearty laugh, and said,

  "That ought to have settled him!"

  "Hm! Settled him! He just said, 'You can enroll me on that party ofyours,' and by all the powers, I will."

  "You're right," said the President emphatically, "and I say to theworkers of the Survey, as I said to another band of workers once, thatit is a good thing that there should be a large body of our fellowcitizens--that there should be a profession--whose members must, year inand year out, display those old, old qualities of courage, daring,resolution, and unflinching willingness to meet danger at need. I hopeto see all our people develop the softer, gentler virtues to anever-increasing degree, but I hope never to see them lose the sternervirtues that make men, men."

  Roger listened with all his ears, hoping that the President would turndirectly to him. Nor was he disappointed. After some congratulatorywords to Rivers on the value of the Alaskan work and the abilitydisplayed in its direction, he turned to Roger.

  "My boy," he said, "you are starting out the right way. You are thefirst of a little army of workers who shall help to win the victoriesof peace. You have a nobler mission than that of preserving a finetradition unspotted, you have the rare honor of making the tradition. Bemanly and straight, give a square deal and never be afraid of hard work,and make for yourself and for those who shall come after you a recordworthy of inclusion in the annals of the Geological Survey of which weare so justly proud."

  He shook hands with Roger again, and bowing to Rivers and Mitchon, wenton his way with the Director. For a moment no one spoke, both menwatching the boy keenly. Suddenly the look of solemnity and attentionslipped from his face, and stepping forward unconsciously as though tofollow, he burst out:

  "He's fine! Oh, isn't he just bully!" Then he caught the secretary'ssmile, and he checked himself. "And wasn't he just kind to me! Oh, Mr.Mitchon, how can I thank you, and you, Mr. Rivers. I have wanted to seethe President for years and years, but I never dreamed of seeing himclose, like that, and talking to him, except at some public reception,which would seem altogether different."

  Tears of pride and joy stood in the lad's eyes, and he choked, unable togo on. The men were touched by the boy's intense patriotism andemotion, and then the secretary said softly:

  "That, Roger, will be something to inspire you and make you stronger inall the hard moments of your life. The greatness of the President," hecontinued, "lies in his power to make greater all those with whom hecomes in contact."

  "I could never forget it," replied Roger in a low voice.

  "And now," resumed Mitchon, "I may tell you that we were sure Mr. Riverswould not advise you to go to Alaska this year, and Mr. Herold told meto take you to Mr. Field, who has charge of the swamp work in Minnesota.You will go out with him as soon as he opens field work, which, Ipresume, will be next week."

  Rivers then turned to the boy.

  "Doughty," he said, "probably I shall not see you again until nextautumn, when I come back from an inspection of the Alaskan camps, but Idon't want to lose track of you. Write to me here, at the Survey, atleast once a month, and they will forward my letters. I will not addanything to what the President has said, because I think no more isneeded, but I will say that if you make good as well as you promise, Ishall be glad to have you in my party. Not," he added, as anafterthought, "because of your scholarship or any friendships you maypossess, but because I think you will be willing to work hard and doyour best."

  "My word," said the secretary with a whistle, "that's a lot--from you."

  "It is," answered the geologist, shaking Roger's hand heartily, andleaving the boy alone with Mitchon.

  "And now, Roger," said the latter, "I will take you where you can beginto acquire that large stock of experience."