So she began to harry the Governor to find employment for the "Brigade." Her importunities and theirs together drove him to a gentle desperation at last, and he finally summoned the Brigade to the presence.

Then, said he: "Gentlemen, I have planned a lucrative and useful service for you -- a service which will provide you with recreation amid noble landscapes, and afford you never ceasing opportunities for enriching your minds by observation and study.

I want you to survey a railroad from Carson City westward to a certain point! When the legislature meets I will have the necessary bill passed and the remuneration arranged." "What, a railroad over the Sierra Nevada Mountains ?" "Well, then, survey it eastward to a certain point!" He converted them into surveyors, chain-bearers and so on, and turned them loose in the desert.

It was "recreation" with a vengeance! Recreation on foot, lugging chains through sand and sage-brush, under a sultry sun and among cattle bones, cayotes and tarantulas.
"Romantic adventure" could go no further.

They surveyed very slowly, very deliberately, very carefully.