60 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
may be desirous of obtaining his permission to enjoy the advan- 
tages of a site unsurpassed, in my opinion, in the world, among 
those equally accessible. There is the greatest abundance of stone 
on the peak, but construction will be slow, owing to the difficulty 
of labor at that altitude, and the difficulty of supplies until the 
mule trail is completed. 
“With the contemplated trail, mules could go in one day from 
the projected railroad in Owen’s River Valley to the very summit 
of what is believed to be the highest mountain in the United 
States. Though the mere fact that it is probably the highest point, 
may attach one kind of interest to this site, it is not merely on that 
account that I have already spoken so strongly in its favor. The 
dryness of the air, the altogether exceptional purity of the sky, 
the altitude, the remarkable differences of level of adjacent points 
(Mt. Whitney is 11,000 feet above a station in sight, and but 15 
miles away) together with its accessibility, make this in my 
opinion a site especially deserving of occupation.” 
The matter was laid before the Academy in April, 1882, when 
the following resolution was adopted: 
“ Resolved, That the Academy suggest to the Honorable the Secretary of the 
Interior that a reservation be set apart for scientific purposes in the Sierra Nevada, 
California, of not less than ten miles square, and to include the summit called, 
by the State Geological Survey, Mount Whitney, and another peak lying south- 
ward, which has sometimes been confounded with Mount Whitney, and which 
is locally known as “ Sheep Mountain.” *4 
The President of the Academy appointed S. P. Langley, W. H. 
Brewer and J. W. Powell as a committee to have charge of the 
matter. 
As the reservation was to be a military one, a letter was ad- 
dressed to the Secretary of the Interior, on July 28, 1883, by 
Secretary of War, Robert T. Lincoln, in which he remarked: “ I 
beg that you will please advise this Department whether there 
exists any objection to the setting apart for military purposes of 
the land in question, and that if no objection thereto exists the 
land be temporarily withheld from sale or entry until the orders 
of the President declaring and setting it apart as a military reser- 
“Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. 1, p. 207. 
