﻿SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



vol. 59 



Bassour, belonging to the Ecole Rondil. The observing station was 

 located in latitude 36 13' 20" N., longitude 2° 51' 30" E., at an eleva- 

 tion of 1,160 meters. 



With the exception of one French family, all the neighbors during 

 most of the four months' stay were Arabs. A screen-door added to 

 the house by the Americans to hinder the entrance of house-flies, 

 proved to have a no less valuable effect in keeping out uninvited 

 visitors. Ancient methods of agriculture prevail in this region. 

 Wheat is the staple crop. The ploughing is done with wooden 



Fig. 1. — Observing station in Bassour. Photograph by Abbot. 



ploughs, and the grain is threshed by treading out with oxen or mules, 

 just as probably was done in the same country thousands of years ago. 



The menage for the party was in the hands of Mrs. Abbot, who 

 accompanied her husband, and doubtless owing to this circumstance 

 no sickness of any kind occurred while the observers were in the 

 field. 



A complete spectrobolometric outfit was erected, including a small 

 dark-room shelter for the photographic recording galvanometer. 

 This shelter was built by Messrs. Abbot and Brackett out of packing 

 boxes. The apparatus was the same that Mr. Abbot had used in 1909, 

 and 1910, in his brief expeditions to the summit of Mount Whitney, 



