ENGELMANN ALTITUDE OF PIKE'S PEAK. 127 



1806) measured it by triangulation "on the base of a mile," 

 apparently on the Arkansas river, south of the Peak. He 

 found it (p. 17.1, note) 10,581 feet above the level of "the 

 prairie," and, supposing the prairie to be 8,000 feet above the 

 level of the sea, he made the elevation of the Peak 18.581 ft. 

 But as we know from Fremont's observation (Rep. 2d Exp., 

 p. 116) that the Arkansas somewhat lower down, at the 

 mouth of the Fontaine-qui-bouit, is only 4,880 feet, Captain 

 Pike's base may have been about 5,500 instead of 8,000 feet, 

 reducing the altitude of the peak to about 16,000 feet, still 

 nearly 1,800 feet too much. 



Col. S. H. Long, the second explorer of that region, on the 

 contrary, estimated the base too low. The surgeon, botanist 

 and historian of the expedition, Dr. E.James, says,* for Pike's 

 8,000 feet " we would substitute 3,000 feet." Dr. James was 

 the first white man whose foot trod the summit of the Peak 

 itself; its altitude was measured (Appendix, p. 37) by trian- 

 gulation from camp on Boiling Spring -creek, 25 miles from 

 the Peak. A base of 1,048 feet was measured, a second base 

 of 133,372 feet was calculated, and the height of the Peak 

 above the "plain " where the observations were made was 

 found to be 8,507.5 feet, which, with the 3,000 feet for the 

 altitude of the base line, gives for the summit 11,507.5 feet 

 above tidewater. Long's base, however, must have been 

 somewhat lower than the Boiling Spring, say about 5,800 ft. 

 above the Gulf, which would increase Long's result to about 

 14,300 feet, almost exactly the true height, as now ascertained 

 by Dr. Parry. 



Tins comprises the more or less precise knowledge we had 

 of these mountains, until Dr. C. C. Parry, now of Davenport, 

 Iowa, on his second botanical exploration of Colorado Territo- 

 ry during the summer of 1862, with an excellent mountain ba- 

 rometer, constructed by James Green of New-York, measured 

 more than sixty stations, (and a number of them by obser- 

 vations continued for several days,) among them two of 

 the principal passes and the summits of five of the highest 

 mountains. 



Entrusted by Dr. Parry with the calculation of these ob- 

 servations, I have thought it best to refer them to the corres- 

 ponding observations made by me here in St. Louis at my 

 station, 481 feet above the Gulf of Mexico, this being the next 

 convenient barometrical station where regular observations 

 are made and the altitude of which has been definitely ascer- 

 tained. Though I am fully aware that the distance of 15 de- 

 grees of longitude intervening between both points must 

 allow many disturbing influences to interfere with the per- 



* Long's Expedition to the Rocky Mountains. By Dr. James. Philad. 

 1823. Vol. 2, p. 382. 



