502 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANE;0US COI.LECTIONS VOL. 52 



September, 1909, when Mars would be near the earth and high 

 above the horizon, at the time of year when Mount Whitney could 

 be ascended with instruments. 



"Late in August, 1908, I ascended Mount Whitney, in order to 

 determine the limiting sizes of instruments which could be trans- 

 ported over the rocky trail on the backs of pack animals, and to 

 plan the living arrangements for the proposed expedition of 1909. 

 I was accompanied by Director C. G. Abbot, of the Smithsonian 

 Institution Observatory, who was interested in the summit of Mount 

 Whitney in connection with high-altitude studies of solar radiation, 

 as Professor Langley's pioneer expedition had been interested in 

 188 1. We remained on the summit through the night of August 24, 

 1908. The readings of the dry- and wet-bulb thermometers obtained 

 by Director Abbot indicated that the conditions were extremely 

 favorable for the solution of the proposed problem. Before leaving 

 the summit I decided definitely that observations in 1909, requiring 

 a residence of a week or more, should not be undertaken unless a 

 building of some kind could be erected as a shelter in case of storm, 

 and the question of ways and means was discussed. Director Abbot 

 suggested that the purposes of such a building might perhaps come 

 within the scope of the Hodgkins Fund of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution. A few weeks later, after receiving my description of a 

 building which would meet the needs of the proposed expedition, 

 he was pleased to present the subject to Dr. C. D. Walcott, Secretary 

 of the Smithsonian Institution, for consideration. Through the 

 Secretary's lively interest an appropriation to provide the building 

 for the shelter of the 1909 and any worthy future expeditions was 

 made." 



The sketch and specifications proposed by Director Campbell con- 

 templated a three-room hut with stone walls and steel roof and 

 doors, to be used not primarily as an observatory, although it might 

 be convenient to use a part of it occasionally as a dark-room for 

 photography, but rather as a shelter and living quarters for observers 

 in any branch of science who might apply to the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution for permission to use the building during the progress of 

 observations. Not only astronomers, but meteorologists, physicists, 

 chemists, geologists, and perhaps botanists, zoologists, and medical 

 men, might desire to make experiments on the top of Mount Whit- 

 ney. The writer transmitted Director Campbell's plans with a letter 

 of explanation and recommendation to Secretary Walcott. who, on 

 October 30, 1908, approved a grant from the Hodgkins Fund for 

 erecting the proposed shelter on Mount Whitney. 



