72 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION 



The object glass is of excellent quality, and the mounting met 

 the requirements in a satisfactory manner. 



The equipment had been shipped ahead and was awaiting me 

 in lyos Angeles. In accordance with your instructions, I at once 

 arranged for its transfer to Echo mountain, where Professor I^arkin 

 very kindly put the resources of the L,owe Observatory at my dis- 

 posal, in order that comparative tests might be made with the Lowe 

 1 6-inch telescope and my instrument. 



President H. E. Huntington, of the Pacific Electric Railway Com- 

 pany, through his general manager, Mr. Epes Randolph, extended 

 the courtesies of the Mount Eowe Railroad from Eos Angeles dur- 

 ing my stay, thus facilitating the work. 



Mount Lowe, like its neighbors of the San Gabriel range, rises 

 most abruptly from the Los Angeles plains. One approaches the 

 mountain by a mesa which rises so gradually to the precipitous 

 spurs that he scarcely notices he has left sea level behind. Then a 

 cable incline lifts him suddenly to an altitude of 3,200 feet. At 

 the head of the incline are the power house and other buildings of 

 the electric railroad. Some abandoned chalets stand by the edge 

 of the canj^on, whose precipitous eastern walls send back the echoes 

 that give the place its name. Properly, Echo mountain is but a 

 spur of Mount Lowe, which is a vast pile of just such spurs, cul- 

 minating in a round, rocky, desolate summit, at 5,650 feet above 

 the sea. 



The original intention, it is said, was to place the Lowe Observa- 

 tory on the top of Mount Lowe, but the electric railroad was never 

 completed to the summit, and this plan was not carried out. The 

 present terminus of the road is at Alpine Tavern, 4)^ miles from 

 the top of the incline and at 1,100 feet greater elevation. 



The Lowe Observatory is situated at Echo mountain, 3,400 feet 

 above the sea, a short walk above the head of the incline, and by 

 the electric road is within fifty minutes of Pasadena and an hour 

 and twenty minutes of Los Angeles. 



The mountain rises immediately back of the Observatory, on the 

 north, to an angular altitude of perhaps ten or more degrees, so 

 that there is not a clear horizon in this direction. Toward the 

 northeast, across a canyon, another spur rises to a greater elevation, 

 and here, too, the view is obstructed. In other directions the 

 horizon is clear. 



The water supply of the Observatory is derived from a spring in 

 one of the canyons a short distance away. A reservoir has been 



