human
Thermometer's at minus fifty, but we must pull out at sun-up, he remarked.
gpt
Now, as I have to run my corner-line as ordered and the grub we've been able to get won't last long, I can't take all the boys and hunt for that belt of farming land.
human
Supposititious, isn't it? Gerald suggested.
gpt
We've seen nothing to indicate there being any soil up here that one could get a plowshare into. Still, the authorities have rather liberal ideas of what could be called cultivatable land.
human
That's so, the surveyor agreed.
gpt
Where I was raised they used to say that a bushman can get a crop wherever he can fire the seed among the rocks with a shotgun. Anyway, the breeds and the Indians talk about a good strip of alluvial bottom, and we've got to find out something about it before we go back.
human
It will be difficult to haul the stores and camp truck if you divide the gang.
gpt
Sure; but here's my plan. The surveyor opened a rather sketchy map.
human
I take the sleds and follow the two sides of the triangle. I'll give you the base, and two packers. Marching light, by compass, you'll join me where the base-line meets the side; but you'll do no prospecting survey unless you strike the alluvial bottom.
gpt
What about provisions?
human
You can carry enough to see you through; the cache I made in advance is within a few marches of where we meet.