TEE BLUE HILL OBSERVATORY. 



293 



work. As regards location, the Blue Hill Observatory thus occupies a 

 unique position among the meteorological observatories of the world. 



Two secondary stations, at altitudes above the sea of 50 and 200 

 feet, respectively, at the base of Blue Hill bear the same relation to the 

 main observatory that the base stations bear to the higher ones in the 

 most completely planned European mountain observatory systems; 

 while the Weather Bureau station at Boston and the neighboring 

 Harvard Observatory meteorological station offer the advantages of 

 representing the adjacent country. 



Just as Dr. Wild set a pattern for Europeans to copy, so Mr. Eotch 

 has given the United States a model observatory which it will be no 

 mistake to use as a pattern in the future development of observational 

 meteorology in this country. It seems to me that every possible precau- 



O 



The Station for Cloud Measurements in Valley, 1896-1897. 



tion has been taken in the placing of the apparatus and in its conven- 

 ient manipulation. The instruments and apparatus are of good con- 

 struction and well adapted to the work required. The personnel of 

 the staff could not be improved ; certainly not in this country and prob- 

 ably not abroad. The true scientific spirit prevails at the observatorj^ 

 and I have found there the same distinctive atmosphere which marks 

 the Eussian observatory at Pawlowsk. There can. be no doubt but that 

 the Blue Hill Observatory is the most successfully conducted meteoro- 

 logical observatory in America, and its work will compare favorably 

 with that of European observatories of the highest class. 



Some may wonder how it was possible for this observatory to have 

 such a good start, reach such a high state of development within a brief 

 space of time, and avoid those errors of organization and management 



