Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 79 



great distance from it, that they were much higher. Having heard 

 Professor Kenwick, of New York, express an opinion of the alti- 

 tude of these mountains far beyond what had usually been ascribed 

 to them, we applied to him for the authority on which he grounded 

 his observation, and here subjoin his reply : 



"* Columbia College, New York, Feb. 23, 1836. 



" * Dear Sir, — In cotr.pliance with your request, 1 have to com- 

 municate some facts in relation to the heights of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, and the sources whence I obtained the information. 



" * In conversation with Simon MacGillivray, Esq., a partner of 

 the North-west Company, he stated to me his impression, that the 

 mountains in the vicinity of the route pursued by the traders of that 

 company were nearly as high as the Himalayas. He had himself 

 crossed by this route, seen the snowy summits of the peaks, and 

 experienced a degree of cold which required a spirit thermometer 

 to indicate it. His authority lor the estimate of the heights was a 

 gentleman who had been employed for several y^ars as surveyor of 

 that compa^3^ This conversation occurred about sixteen years 

 since. 



" * A year or two afterwards, 1 had the pleasure of dining at 

 Major Delaheld's, with Mr. Thompson, the gentleman referred to 

 by Mr. MacGillivray. I inquired of him in relation to the circum- 

 stances mentioned by Mr. MacGillivray, and he stated that, by the 

 joint means of the barometer and trigonometric measurement, he 

 had ascertained the height of one of the peaks to be about twenty- 

 five thousand feet, and there were others of nearly the same height 

 in the vicinity. I am, dear Sir, yours truly, 



" *To W. Irving, Esq. James Ren wick.' " 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS FOR NOVEMBER 1836. 



Chiswick. — Nov. 1, Frosty: cold and wet: cloudy. 2. Hazy: drizzly. 

 3. Cloudy; fine : rain at night. 4. Overcast : rain. 5. Cloudy. 6, 7. Frosty. 



8. Sharp frost : clear : frosty with fog at night. 9. Overcast : rain. 

 10. Cloudy : fine. 1 1. Heavy rain : cloudy and fine. 1 2. Foggy. IS. Rain : 

 fine : rain at night. 14. Clear and fine. 1 5. Clear and frosty : cloudy. 

 16. Fine. 17. Overcast : very fine : stormy with rain at night. 18. Fine. 

 19. Slight frost : rain : stormy showers. 20. Clear. 21. Foggy: drizzly. 



22. Foggy : rain. 23. Dense clouds : boisterous : clear at night. 24. Clear 

 and cold. 25. Frosty : hazy : rain. 26. Foggy : rain. 27. Cloudy. 

 28, 29. iioisterous with rain. 30. Fine : rain. 



[The barometer on the 8th, at 8 a.m., was 30*083, and had risen at an 

 average of '028 per hour during the night; consequently would he about 

 30 inches at the time when that along with Mr. Green, in his balloon 

 ascent, was at 20 inches, or — ^ of the whole atmospheric pressure near the 

 level ot the sea. — R, Thompson.] 



Boston. — Nov. 1 — 3. Cloudy. 4. Fine. 5. Cloudy. 6 — 8. Fine. 



9. Cloudy : rain early a.m. 10. Fine : rain early a.m. : rain p.m. 1 1. Cloudy. 

 12. Foggy. 13. Rain : rain p.m. 14 — 16.Fine: r«in p.m. 17. Cloudy: 

 rain p.m. 18. Fine: rain p.m. 19. Rain : rain p.m. 20 — 22. Fine -. rain p.m. 



23. Stormy : rain early a.m. 24. Fine. 25. Cloudy. 26. Cloudy : rain 

 early a.m.: rain p.m. 27, 28. Cloudy; rain early a.m. : rain p.m. 29. Rain : 

 rain early a.m.: rain p.m. 30. Fine: hurricane with rain a.m. 



Nov. 28th, about one o'clock p.m., during a heavy thunder storm, Boston 

 church steeple was struck by lightning, which did considerable damage to 

 one of the pinnacles, and one of the vanes fell to the ground. 



