After he was graduated in 1853, young Rogers travelled for many months in England and on the Continent, where his route was mainly determined by his eagerness to examine the most famous works of modern engineering skill.
After his return, probably in 1855, another warm and enduring friendship enriched his life, and was destined largely to control it. He became acquainted,—possibly at the table of Professor Frazer,—with Professor Alexander Dallas Bache, the Superintendent of The United States Coast Survey, who was evidently at once attracted to the quick-witted, well-equipped, sunny-tempered young man, and eventually accepted his services as a volunteer aid in the Government work then on hand in the measurement of a Base Line in Florida. Here was practice in the field,—such as any engineer double young Rogers's age would have been glad to gain,—under an officer the highest authority in the land in Civil Engineering, the most rigid and punctilious of military disciplinarians when on duty, the genial, warm-hearted friend, and, within the limits of becoming mirth, the most jovial of companions in hours of relaxation. Sterile, indeed, must be the soil which would not respond to such influences. In young Rogers's case the soil was ready to teem with flower and fruit. The hardest of hard work ruled the day, and in the evening, on board the Government boat, in the lagoons of
