8 THE HEIGHT OF BEN LOMOND, 



r>.<5. TAS. 



much drier than usual. The beautiful pools which usually 

 are found everywhere over the plateau were for the most 

 part dry, and the bright vegetation which grows in and 

 round them was withered. The blaze of colors which Ben 

 Lomond show^s in summer was duller than in other years; 

 the sage bush and the yellow bush had their usual tints, 

 but there was scarcely a flower on the acres which are often 

 covered with the white and red and orange blossoms of 

 the richea. 



We first remeasured the base (TA) at Stacks Bluff. In 



1911 this had been found to be 1554*42 feet and 1554'43 

 feet in two measurements, each made with a 300-foot 

 J-inch steel band in the usual w^ay. When remeasured in 



1912 with the same band, the length was found to be 

 ISoS'O feet; but owing to a high wind the measurement 

 was probably not as accurate as those made in 1911. We 

 took the length to be 1554 feet. 



This base is of course a very short one. But it is to be 

 remembered that our object was not to find the distance of 

 Legge Peak (which was nearly seven miles) — an object for 

 which the base would have been unsuitable, as any error 

 of measurement would be exaggerated twenty times, and 

 in addition there would bo an error in calculation result- 

 ing from the smallness of the angle at Mt. Legge — but to 

 determine a difference of height which was only about one- 

 tenth of the length of the base. An error of a foot, then, 

 in the measured length would give an error of only a little 

 more than an inch in the difference of height, and from 

 this point of view the base was long enough. 



Mr. Hutchison then measured the horizontal and ver- 

 tical angles from the ends of the base to Legge Peak, and 

 to the ends of a new base CD which another member of the 

 party had marked meanwhile near last year's base at the 

 Nile gorge. Owing to a high wind and other circum- 

 stances the angles are not quite complete, but even apart 

 from the angles taken at the second base, they give two 

 determinations of the height of Mt. Legge, and with these 

 angles they give an ample check. 



On the following day we measured the new base at the 

 Nile gorge ( 1366*5 feet), and Mr. Hutchison took the 

 necessary angles there. We also laid out two other bases, 

 ^B, BE, and used these to determine the heights of the 

 two summits of Ragged Mountain, an outlier to the north- 

 west of Ben Lomond. 



