34 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



applied to the support, maintenance, and equipment of an as- 

 tronomical observatory and school of mines, at St. Anthony's 

 Falls, in connection with the Minnesota State University. A 

 special stipulation in this proposed act is that the schools 

 shall be free of charge to all students. 



PROPOSED OBSERVATORY IN CALIFORNIA. 



For some years past much interest has been exhibited in 

 the United States in reference to the erection of a large tele- 

 scope, and possibly a complete astronomical observatory, on 

 the high portion of the Rocky Mountains. As preliminary 

 to this, a number of careful examinations have been made of 

 the optical qualities of the atmosphere in various portions of 

 the Western country. Of these, special interest attaches to 

 the expedition of Professor Davidson of the Coast Survey, 

 whose report to the California Academy of Sciences states 

 that the meteorological tables kept at Summit Station, on the 

 Sierra Nevada, 7042 feet above the sea, during the year end- 

 ing November, 1867, show that out of 358 days and nights 

 only eighty-eight were cloudy, nearly all of these occurring in 

 the winter months, during which the snow-fall was about forty- 

 five feet, the winter not being unusually mild. The summer 

 weather is very pleasant, the nights cool, and the atmosphere 

 wonderfully clear. The mountain flanks are covered with 

 verdure during the summer, which insure freedom from great 

 clouds of dust. Professor Davidson says that, owing to the 

 steadiness of the atmosphere, observations at this elevated 

 point in one or two nights would be of greater value than 

 the results of six months' observations at lower stations. 

 Higher and perhaps more desirable positions exist in the im- 

 mediate neighborhood of Summit Station ; and the interest 

 excited by Davidson's report probably has, to a considerable 

 extent, influenced the determination announced in a recent 

 letter of Mr. James Lick, the well-known millionaire of San 

 Francisco. This gentleman has indicated in a letter to the 

 California Academy of Sciences, and again in a letter to Pro- 

 fcssor Joseph Henry, his desire to establish an observatory in 

 the best possible location, and provide it with the largest and 

 finest astronomical instruments. He proposes to this end to 

 set aside one million dollars as a permanent endowment fund. 

 This is a monument and a renown which few are rich and 



