34 MOUNTAIN OBSERVATORIES IN AMERICA AND EUROPE. 



These matters, interesting in themselves, are of importance to science 

 because it is now certain that high-level meteorological stations in 

 abundance are soon to be available. 



In our own country the railway up Mt. Washington has long been 

 in operation, and the railway up Pike's Peak makes that summit avail- 

 able. A cable-railway to Echo Mountain (3500 feet) in California 

 has lately been extended to Mt. Wilson (6000 feet). All these peaks 

 have been, or will be, occupied as meteorological or astronomical 

 stations. It is worthy of remark, in passing, that the rapid change of 

 atmospheric pressure seems to be a cause of mountain-sickness for a 

 large proportion of visitors to the summit of Pike's Peak, and even to 

 some of the lower summits. 



British India. 



Hospitality is asked for a note in this place on a high-level observa- 

 tory about to be established in British India. 



THE KODIAKANAL SOLAR PHYSICS OBSERVATORY IN THE PALANll 

 HILLS, INDIA (7700 feet). 



This new observatory, founded in 1895, is described by its Director,! 

 Mr. C. Michie Smith, in the Publications of the Astronomical /Society of the 

 Pacific, 1895. Its climate is utterly different from anything with whicli| 

 Europeans or Americans are familiar, as may be seen by a glance at 

 the paper cited. There are over 2000 hours of sunshine yearly, anc 

 the experiments so far conducted show that the atmosphere is steady as' 

 well as clear. It is worthy of notice that very careful tests had been 

 made of several sites before the site for the observatory was finally fixed. 



