MOUNTAIN OBSERVATORIES. 391 



instrument will have — besides the Rosse leviathan, which, for many 

 reasons, may be considered to be out of the running — but one rival. 

 And over this rival — the 48-inch reflector of the Melbourne Observ- 

 atory — it will have all the advantages of agility and robustness (so to 

 speak) which its system of construction affords ; while the exquisite 

 definition for which Alvau Clark is famous will, presumably, not be 

 absent. 



Already preparations are being made for its reception at Mount 

 Plamilton. The scabrous summit of " Observatory Peak " has been 

 smoothed down to a suitable equality of surface by the removal of 

 40,000 tons of hard trap-rock. Preliminary operations for the erection 

 of a dome, seventy-five feet in diameter, to serve as its shelter, are in 

 progress. The water-supply has been provided for by the excavation 

 of great cisterns. Buildings are being rapidly pushed forward from 

 designs prepared by Professors Ilolden and Newcorab. Most of the 

 subsidiary instruments have for some time been in their places, consti- 

 tuting in themselves an equipment of no mean order. With their aid 

 Professor Holden and Mr. Burnham observed the transit of Mercury 

 of November 7, 1881, and Professor Todd obtained, December 6, 1882, 

 a series of 147 photographs (of which seventy-one were of the highest 

 excellence) recording the progress of Venus across the face of the sun. 



We are informed that a great hotel will eventually add the induce- 

 ment of material well-being to those of astronomical interest and 

 enchanting scenery. No more delightful summer resort can well be 

 imagined. The road to the summit, of which the construction formed 

 the subject of a species of treaty between Mr. Lick and the county of 

 Santa Clara in 1875, traverses from San Jose a distance, as a bird flies, 

 of less than thirteen miles, but doubled by the windings necessary in 

 order to secure moderate gradients. So successfully has this been ac- 

 complished, that a horse drawing a light wagon can reach the observ- 

 atory buildings without breaking his trot.* As the ascending track 

 draws its coils closer and closer round the mountain, the view becomes 

 at every turn more varied and more extensive. On one side the tumult- 

 uous Coast Ranges, stooping gradually to the shore, magnificently clad 

 with forests of pine and red cedar ; the island-studded bay of San 

 Francisco, and farther south, a shining glimpse of the Pacific ; on the 

 other, the thronging pinnacles of the Sierras — granite needles, lava- 

 topped bastions — fire-rent, water-worn ; right underneath, the rich 

 valleys of Santa Clara and San Joaquin, and 175 miles away to the 

 north (when the sapphire of the sky is purest), the snowy cone of 

 Mount Shasta. 



Thus, there seems some reason to apprehend that Mount Hamilton, 

 with its monster telescope, may become one of the show-places of the 

 New World. Ahsit omen! Such a desecration would effectually mar 

 one of the fairest prospects opened in our time before astronomy. The 



* E. Holden, "The Lick Observatory," " Nature," vol. xxv,p. 298. 



