Survey days
Seventy-five survey days was the minimum period required for the mission, assuming that adverse weather conditions and holidays were not taken into account, yet even under the best circumstances, no one—no matter how resilient or accustomed to the elements—could work continuously without respite for such an extended period, especially in the unforgiving terrain of Alaska, where ice and snow dominated the landscape in every season of the year, and even the hardiest of young men, blessed with quick recovery, would find their endurance tested to its very limits. By mid-August, the transformation of the season became unmistakable as autumn steadily encroached upon the fleeting summer, a summer that, in Alaska, was never more than a brief interlude before the inevitable return of cold. The wea
- Writer
