406 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. SEPTEMBER, 1906
science which plays such an important part in our daily lives should be
80 little taught that in all our hundreds of colleges there is only one
that has a chair of climatology. We are an agricultural nation and the
variations in the weather are the chief cause of variations in crops-and
yet the farmers’ children are taught almost nothing ahout the science of
weather and climate and their relations to agriculture. * * * The exquisitely appointed Russian observatory at Pavlovsk is located
in a corner of a park belonging t o the royal family. There the late
Professor Wild was accustomed to spend his summers and while he no
doubt enjoyed its beauties, yet he carried on experiments and observa-
tions which made this observatory the most celebrated of its kind in the
world. The present writer will never forget the summer weeks that
he spent in that fairyland of science.
The German Government is not given to wasting money and yet it supports a most
extensive observatory in the beautiful Potsdam Pal k; an observatory
which performs in part the same functions as will the new Weather
Bureau observatory.
A third kind of Observatory has also been established in Europe, viz,
well equipped observatories at high elevations on mountain peaks. Such are the observatories of Ben Nevie, Scotland, Puy de Dome and Pic du
Midi in France, and the Sonnblick in the Tyrol. We had it is true our
own Mount Washington and Pikes Peak go\-el nment observatories, but
they were only counterpart5 of the ordinary Signal Service obser\ing
stations and had none of the completeness of the best Eutopean iuoun-
tain observatories. It reinailred for Mr. A. Lawrence Rotch, of Boston,
to give us the first well-equipped mountain observatory in this country,
and although he located it on the relatively low-lying crest of the great
Blue Hill, yet i t is perfect in its appointments, and sets US an example
by which to build our future mountain observatories. The woik of this private observatory is among the best of its kind in the norld.
However pleasant a few days sojourn on a mountain top may be in
midsummer, no one will say that it remains agreeable for any leugthy
stay, and a winter’s residence ib only made bearable by a sense of obliga-
tion or duty. Some of the most heroic scientific work ever undertaken
has been at these mountain nieteorological stations, as the records o f
Ben Nevls, the Sonnblick, and Mount Washington amply show. And
the new Mount Weather Observatory will undouhtedly furnish an ad(li-
tional field for heroic winter scientific research, although the climate is
not so severe as on some higher mountains on which observatories have
been located.
That observatory is in a manner a combination of these two kinds of
observatories, in both of which our Government service has hitherto
been lacking; it fills the place of two Observatories by aucomplishing
the work of both. I t has then been an econoiny to build this combina-
tion observatory. * * A t the present time the Weather Bureau has no adequate training
school for its observers, and its new olrservatory will fill this need to
the extent of its limited capacity. * * There are many college instructors and other scientific men who desire
to carry on some special work, bearing on meteorology, at a well
equipped observatory. Such inen are made welcome at the great Euro-
pean observatories, and they have carried on valuable observations and
experiments. The Weather Bureau is now for the first time able to
extend such courtesies t o American and foreign screntibts. * * * There is a great class of refined observations which can only be carried
on a t a distance from the disturbing influence of a city. Such observa-
tions can now be undertaken at this new observatory. In the study of the phenomena connected with American storms it has an unsurpassed
location. It lies as nearly as possible within the track of the three
great classes of storins that sweep over the easlern United States; the
cyclones from the Mississippi Valley, those from the west Gulf (Texas
and Mexico), and those from the West Iudies which passalong our east-
ern coast. We may now expect that much light will be thrown upon
the relations of these storms. * * * In flne, the building of this new weather observatory must be regarded
as the most impoitant step taken by our Gorernment in late years for
the betterment of the Weather Bureau bervice.
Or take another case, that of the Potsdam Observatory.
MOUNTAIN STATIONS AND THEIR IMPORTANCE.
A letter of March 23,1005, from Prof. Alexander G. McAdie
incloses one from Prof. J. E. Church, jr., of the Nevada
State University, Reno, Nev., relative to observations on Mount
Whitney, Cal., and Mount Rose, Nev., with the request that
the Editor give his opinion as to the importance of mountain
stations.
The letter of Professor Church reads as follows:
RENO, NEV., hfarch IS, 1905.
Prof. ALEXANDER MCADIE,
DEAR SIR: Mr. Marsh and I spent eight days on Mount Whitney and
climbed to the altitude of 13,250 feet where we could look down on Lang-
ley’s Lake. A t this point the ledge was piled full of drifting snow with
Saii Frcoiriaco, Pal.
a treacherous crust beneath, I now believe that we could have succeeded
jn crossing this, although the risk would have been great.
The ascent to 13,500 could be made at any season of the year, I believe,
especially if two or three cabins were constructed along the trail for
refuge in case of storm. Access could be had to the summit also during most of the year, Mr. Marsh believes, if a narrow trail for man were cut
higher up the pinnacles where the drift snow could not lodge in sufficient
quantity to prevent the observer from keeping the trail open. The ex- pense would not exceed $150.
The weather was mild, though snow clouds hung over the mountains.
The temperature did not fall below 100 F. The wind blew almost con-
stantly from the east, from the subtropical Owen’s Valley, and seemed
to have an appreciable affect upon the temperature of the mountain, for Lone Pine Lake (9800 feet) and Mirror Lake at timber line (10,450 feet)
were only partially frozen over, while the lakes west of Mount Whitney
at apparently similar altitudes were frozen completely over ttnd covered
with mow. The snow also was mealy and unstable, with little hardness
anywhere, such as I have always found on Mount Rose above the alti-
tude of 8500 feet.
As regards the difficulty of the ascent in .winter. I should consider
Mount Shasta as not only far easier, but also entirely safe have for the
possible fusillade of rocks below the Red Cliffs. There is no horse trail
up Mount Shasta, however, above the altitude of 9000 feet.
I wish I were free to volunteer to take observations on Mount TVhituey
for you for a year.
If you are willing, I will take the readings of a maximum aud minimum
thermometer on Mount Rose (10,860 feet) north of Lake Tahoe, nearly
every month during the coming twelve months. if you will send me the
instiuments. Mouut Rose is the
highest point east of the summits of the Sierras and north of Lake
Tahoe. The wind is usually very high there, but Lake Tahoe may have
an intluence on the temperature. If you are favoralile, I could place the
thermometers on Mount Rose at once. The temperature early in Feb-
ruary at 6500 feet altitude on this mountain fell considerably below zero
to judge from the frost crystals in iny sleeping hag and frosted feet, and
from the temperature of -1 5 O and -2 5 O F. a t Trucliee and Floriston the
same night.
Our party had the honor of naniing the peak directly south of Lone
Pine Pass, Mount McAdie, to commeniorste your services in advancing
the science of climatology. If, as
Mr. Marsh declares, this peak has not previously been named, we beg
that you allow this name to stand.
The results might have some ralue.
Its altitude is at least 13,5110 feet.
The importance of mountain stations has been felt to an
increasing degree ever since Perrier. by the advice of Pascal
and Descartes, ascended the Pug de Dome, and demonstrated
beyond all cavil that barometric pressure diminishes with
altitude in proportion to the weight of the atmosphere left
below as the observer ascends. It thus became evident that
the vacuous space in the upper part of the barometer tube
was not due to the fact that nature abhors a vacuum, but to
the actual pressure exerted upon the mercury in the cistern
by the surrounding gas. The so-called barometric constant
now used in hypsometry was approximately determined about
1800-1810 by a series of observations made by Ramond at the
summit of the Pic du Midi de Bigorre, France, and by Dangos
at Tarbes near the base of that mountain. But permanent
mountain stations began a t a much later period, and for a long
time the most famous of these were our omn stations on Mount
Washington and Pikes Peak. AH the Editor had something
to do with the establishment and maintenance of these sta-
tions, he may be allowed to say that their records still rank
among the most important that we have. They gave us, day
by day, positive knowledge in place of hypotheses as to what
was going on in the atmosphere far above the conditions de-
picted on our daily weather maps. It was not necessary to
reduce such stations to sea level, for we wanted the records
as they were for these upper levels. I f we could only have
had enough stations to make maps of the conditions above us,
we should undoubtedly have advanced far ahead of where we
are now in our knowledge of the atmosphere and in our abil-
ity to predict the weather. I n future years numerous kite and
balloon stations will undoubtedly enable us to realize this
great desideratum.
Nom that very high mountain stations exist all over the
world, we may turn to them and the studies that have been
made of their records, especially as quoted in Hann’s Lehrbuch
SEPTEMBER, 1906. MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. 407
der Meteorologie. Among the high stations Mexico has eight
that really belong to high plateau stations, Unitecl States
had three high plateau stations and two mountain stations,
South America has two high plateau stations and three very
high mountain stations. In Austria-Hungary we find three
high mountain stations, in Great Britain one, in France four,
in Germany four, Russia one, Portugnl one, Switzerland five.
India has two plateau and one mountain station. South Africa
has three mountain stations; Australia, New Zealand, and
Maciagascar have each one.
Most of these are simple observing stations, eight or ten of
them are furnished with continuous self-recording apparatus,
and a few of them are so elaborately eyuippecl as to be more
properly designated observntories of the first class. At most
of these ststions the diurnal periodicities of the temperature,
wiud, and cloudiness have been carefully determined, and the
comparison with the same periodicities at lower stations has
revealed clifferences that seem to follow regular laws, which,
if they continue to hold good for still higher regions ancl for
other portions of the globe, may make us feel that we begin
to know something about the ocean of air above us. But have
we a right to infer that what holds good for a mile above sea
level will also obtain for twenty or fifty miles farther up?
That is the problem that is now being solved by the use of
kites and balloons. The sounding balloon gives u s six items
with regard to the atmosphere up to ten or twelve miles,
namely, the temperature, moisture, insolation, radiation, direc-
tion, and velocity of movenient of the air. It could tell us
about the pressure a t those altitudes if we had any method of
measuring the altitude trigonometrically, but thus far this has
rarely been possible and the self-recording barometer carried
by the sounding balloon is only used as a basis for determin-
ing the altitudes. The items give? by the sounding balloon
are very meager because they only hold good for a few hours
on special dags, but they are exceedingly welcome as supple-
mentary to the continuous records of mountain stations.
Although thousands of observers have been at work for a
hundred years gathering meteorological data yet much of
this work has had an amateurish character and only a small
portion of it lends itself to the needs of moclern investigation.
We have now a fairly satisfactory series of maps giviug
monthly and annual averages of pressure, temperature, winds,
and rainfall for the surface of the land and the ocean, but we
know less about the upper air than me do about the ocean
deeps. So far as we can now see, our knowledge of the concli-
tions and niotions of the atmosphere in the midst of the
clouds a few miles above oils heads (where our storms form,
develop, and die) must always depend upon the results of
diecult mathematical investigations, checked as to their accu-
racy by an occasional balloon ascension ancl the steady records
of a few mountain observatories. The conviction of the truth
of this general statement has led the leacling meteorologists
of the world to unite in international work for the mainte-
nance of mountain stations, kite work, balloon work, and
for the publication of a series of memoirs embodying the
results of their stucly “on the physics of the free atmosphere
or the acientific investigation of the higher strata of air.”
The last number of the publications of the International
Committee for Scientific Aeronautics gives the results of
simultaneous observations on April 14, 1904. as obtained by
seven sounding balloons, five ordinary balloons, five kite
stations, twenty-five mountsin or hill stations, and thirty-
three stations for the observation of clouds. All of these
relate to the atmosphere over Europe, excepting the one
record from Blue Hill, Mass. There could not be any more
eloquent testimony as to the value of research in the upper
air and the thoughtful reader will a t once see that ~i p to the
present time mountain observatories have formed the funda-
mental basis for all this work, while kites and balloons have
been but auxiliaries. These latter are Rent up simultaneously
once a month, while the mountain work goes on continuously
night and day. All this is research work so-called, looking
to the improvement of our knowledge of the atmosphere and
therefore of our weather preclictions, which latter may for a
long time depend wholly upon weather maps representing the
conditions near sea level. NTe must wish success to every
movement toward the establishment of mountain stations in
the United States. They are doubtless expensive and life
therein may be lonesome, but enthusiastic observers and
stuclents will always be found to do work worthy of the
support of the patrons of science. The mountain peaks of the
Coast Range, the Sierratl, Rockies, and Appalachians should
be crowned with a series of sentinel towers where watch may
be kept of every change foreboding storm, or rain, or drought.
The astronomers have their hunclrecls of costly observatories
for the study of the sun ancl the stars. but i t is still more
important that nieteorologists should be furnished with the
observatories that are so greatly needed by them.
AN ABSURD EXPLANATION AS TO INDIAN SUMMEB.
A writer who signs himself L. &I. McC. published in the
Clhicago Evening Post of October 4, the following paragraph:
A t Indian summer the whirling planet sails into the broad aerial gulf
stream, a vapor plane that stretches through space. Its dust fills the atmosphere, its moisture and peculiar qualities for light reflection bring
n s the hazy days, the mellow sunlight, and that mysterious influence of indolence.
Those who have stuclied astronomy and physics in the ordi-
nary high school scarcely need to be told that these ideas
are purely fanciful and entirely contrary to what is possible
in nature. We have not yet been able to prove that meteors
or shooting stars or meteoric dusts have anything more than
a perfectly inappreciable influence on our atmosphere; they
must have some little iniluence, but they do not produce the
Indian sumiiier haze. There is no broacl aerial gulf stream
for our whirling planet to sail into. There is no vapor plane
stretching through space. The dust itnd moisture that fill
our atmosphere rise up from the surface of the earth and pro-
duce the haze that we see until clouds and rain wash the air
clean again.
THE ALTITUDE OF MOUNT WHITNEY, GAL.
Communicated by H. C!. Rizer, Acting Director, U. S. Geo-
logical Survey, September 1, 1905.
The elevation of Mount Whitney, C,a1., was determined by the U. S.
Geological Surrey as being 14,502 feet in August, 1905, by a check line
of spirit levels run by Mr. E. A. Farmer, topographer, under the direc-
tion of Mr. E. M. Douglass, geographer, from Mount Whitney station
on the Southern Pacific Railroad, situated a few miles north of Owens
Lake, to the summitof 6he peak. The initial elevationof Mount Whitney
station was accepted as 3691 feet, as derived from a lino of precise
levels run earlier in the season from Mlojave, Cal. The bench mark a t Mojave, in turn, is on a Iioe of precise levels based upon a tidal bench
mark itt San Pedro Harljor near Los Angeles, aud checked by connecting
with a tidal bench mark of the Coast and Geodetic Survey at Benicia
Arsenal on San Pablo Bay, a few miles north of Ran Francisco. The dis- tance from Mount Whitney gtation t o the summit of Mount Whitney along
the line leveled is 23 miles, with n rise of 10,811 feet.
Other determinations of Mount Whitney make its elevation
as follows:
A 11 tliorit y. nrrtiloci. Feet.
Professor Whitney, by baronieter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,898
Lieutenant Whceler, by baromet.er and vertical angles. . 14,470 Professor Hallocli, of C&lumbia University, New Yg jrk, by
boiling point.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,525
Professor Langley, by barometer. . . . . . . . . . .
‘A discussion of the previous determinations of the altitude of Mount
Whitney will I ,e found in the MONTHLT WEATHER REVIEW for November,
1903, pages 524, 537, 533. Professor McAdie’s computcttion of his own
observations gave 14,615 feet.-ED.