ASTRONOMY ON MONT BLANC. 175 



constructed by aid of a legacy of $700,000, ofl'ered in 1874 by a rich 

 merchant of San Francisco, James Lick, who made this gift to 

 astronomy after being dissuaded from constructing a pyramid to 

 serve for his tomb. Though the sum was so large, yet it would not 

 have sufficed if the local authorities had not aided the project. A 

 piece of ground more than 1,500 acres in extent was put at the dis- 

 l^osal of the observatory; the county of Santa Clara appropriated 

 $80,000 for the construction of a road 50 kilometers long from San 

 Jose to the summit of the mountain, and finally the University of 

 California j^romised an annual grant of $'20,000. Thanks to these 

 liberalities, the Lick Observatory was finished in 1888 and provided 

 with good instruments, among them the great telescope of 36 inches 

 diameter, and has ever since carried on such observations as have 

 given it a very high reputation among astronomers. 



The advantage of a high station had long been recognized when, 

 in 1904, George E. Hale, formerly director of the Yerkes Observatory, 

 founded a solar observatory^ on Mount Wilson, at an altitude of 1,800 

 meters. Preliminary experiments had demonstrated that the purity 

 of the sky in this part of California left nothing to be desired, and 

 the Carnegie Institution of Washington immediately came to the 

 financial support of the new observatory, and has already appro- 

 jiriated for it the sum of more than $500,000. This is now the best 

 equipped of all the solar observatories. 



The station at Arequipa, Peru, a branch of the celebrated Harvard 

 College observatory, w^as established in 1890 and is about 3 kilo- 

 meters from the city, at an altitude of 2,457 meters. Not far distant 

 is the high mountain. El Misti. on which a station for meteorological 

 and other purposes was maintained for some time in connection with 

 the Arequipa observatory. At Flagstaff, Ariz., at an altitude of 

 2,210 meters, is located the private observatory of PerciA^al LoAvell. 

 The i^urity, dryness, and calm of the air there promote the brilliancy 

 and steadiness of the telescope images. Besides these, there are in 

 America many other high stations favorable to astronomical obser- 

 vations, but these are principally employed as meteorological stations 

 and only occasionally for temporary astronomical expeditions, 

 notably during eclipses. Of these may be mentioned Pike's Peak, 

 Colo., having an altitude of 4,300 meters where Langley observed the 

 eclipse of 1878; Mount Washington (1,938 meters), Mount Mitchell 

 (2,040 meters). Mount ^\niitney (4,460 meters), and others. 



It is easy to see that meteorolog}^ derives great advantage from the 

 occupancy of high observing stations. There are to-day many of 

 these in the Alps, the Caucasus, and the Himalayas, with altitudes of 

 from 2,000 to 2,500 meters. In France the " Bureau Central Meteor- 

 ologique" directs the following high stations: Servance (1,216 



