ABBOTT LAWRENCE ROTCH. 809 



have contained results of far-reaching importance. It is not an exag- 

 geration to say that much of the recent rapid atlvance of meteorological 

 science is due to tlie pioneer work wliioli was done at IJhic Hill. 



Under an arrangement entered into between Blue Hill Observatory 

 and the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College, Professor 

 Rotch was, for nearly twenty-five years, closely associated with the 

 latter institution. All of the observati(ms made at Blue Hill were 

 published in the .1)111(118 of the Harvard Observatory, and fill eight 

 quarto vohunes. The international form of publication, and metric 

 units, were first used in the United States in the publications of the 

 Blue Hill Observatory. 



It was one of Professor Rotch's most striking characteristics that he 

 never neglected any opportunity which might help him to keep his 

 observatory not only abreast of the times but ahead of the times. 

 He thought nothing of the time and the expense of taking a trip to 

 Europe in order to attend some scientific meeting, meteorological or 

 aeronautical, if he believed, as he most firmly did, that he might by so 

 doing gain inspiration and new ideas. Few scientific men are so 

 regular in their attendance at congresses and meetings; few contribute 

 so much that is new, or gain as much inspiration as he did at such 

 gatherings. It was not the blind following of the dictates of his New 

 England conscience that prompted him to be so regular in his meetings 

 with his scientific colleagues. His motive was a higher one than that. 

 It was his absorbing desire to advance his science by every means 

 within his power. An EngHsh colleague (Dr. H. R. Mill) has written 

 of him tliat he was " the most widely travelled and best-known of 

 meteorologists. It would be hard to name a meteorological observa- 

 tory or institution in any country which he had not visited, or a meteor- 

 ologist with whom he was not on terms of personal friendship .... 

 He was not only a name but a friend to all his colleagues in the meteoro- 

 logical world." The list of scientific bodies of which he was a member 

 was a long one, but every one of them gained much from his member- 

 ship and from his presence at its meetings. He was regular in his 

 attendance; always ready to contril:)ute papers; always modest in 

 his estimate of the importance of his own work; always generous in 

 his appreciation of the work of others; always ready with a word of 

 s\'mpathy, or encouragement, or fellowship. 



The productivity of Blue Hill Observatory has been remarkable, 

 especially when it is remembered that this activity was the result of 

 the support and inspiration of one man. The study of cloud heights, 

 velocities, movements, and methods of formation, at Blue Hill, was one 



