. Our country: West. ks are almost inaccessible except todaring climbers, and others, although accessible even tohorses, were too far from any inhabited point. Pikes Peak was found, on examination, to be the mosteligible, possessing peculiar advantages over all others. Itis on the end of a spur of the range and overtops any peakwithin fifty miles. It is very easy of access, pack-mules andequestrians easily reaching the extreme summit. The object of establishing the station on the summit of thepeak was to study the constitution of the upper .stratum of theatmosphere. A great many observations a
. Our country: West. ks are almost inaccessible except todaring climbers, and others, although accessible even tohorses, were too far from any inhabited point. Pikes Peak was found, on examination, to be the mosteligible, possessing peculiar advantages over all others. Itis on the end of a spur of the range and overtops any peakwithin fifty miles. It is very easy of access, pack-mules andequestrians easily reaching the extreme summit. The object of establishing the station on the summit of thepeak was to study the constitution of the upper .stratum of theatmosphere. A great many observations at heights varyingfrom one to three miles above the sea have been made atdifferent times and at different places by means of balloons,but such observations, although furnishing very interesting-data, are of very little practical value. Now Pikes Peak is two and three-quarters miles abovethe level of the sea, and observations taken there would bemany and continuous. It has been known for many years that there are upper. oo 01 aaa. n 0) SIGNAI. STATION ON PIKES PEAK. 123 currents in the atmosphere moving generally from the was determined by the balloon observations beforealluded to, and by occasional observations taken on the topsof mountains, but more particularly by noting the drift ofclouds, such as the cirrus variety, vi^hich prevail only in theupper regions. It was believed that the summit of the peakwas high enough to be in this current. Of course there were also many other problems, interestingand important, which it was hoped this station would solve. The first step was to look at the ground, and in July twoobservers of the signal service were sent from Washingtonto Colorado Springs. Mr. George Boehmer, later of theSmithsonian Institute, was one, and I w^as the other. Whenwe arrived at Colorado Springs we rented an ofhce, andprepared for a trip to the summit. There were two routes to the top of the peak. One steepand tiresome trail about nine miles in length led
Size: 1264px × 1977px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectwestusdescriptionand
