ANNALS OF THE ACADEMY 6 1 



vation can be obtained." No objection appears to have been 

 made, and on October 4, 1883, the Acting Chief Signal Officer 

 of the Army announced to the committee of the Academy that 

 President Garfield had, on September 20, 1883, proclaimed Mt. 

 Whitney to be a military reservation. The fact was announced 

 to the Academy in April, 1 884, as appears from the report for that 

 year, in which the following statement is made: 



" It was reported that the reservation of public lands on and 

 near Mount Whitney, California, for scientific purposes, had 

 been established, and the committee was continued, with the view 

 to securing and utilizing the reservation for the said scientific 

 purposes." " 



It was not until fourteen years later that definite steps were 

 taken for the utilization of the mountain summit. In the Smith- 

 sonian Report for 1909 we find the following account of the 

 circumstances under which it was brought about: 



" Mount Whitney E.xpeditions. 



" In August, 1908, with Director Campbell, of the Lick Observatory, Mr. 

 Abbot spent about twenty-four hours on the summit of Mount Whitney 

 {14,502 feet). Tliis mountain, which was the objective point of the famous 

 expedition of Mr. Langley in 1881, was recommended by him to be reserved b\- 

 the Government and used as the site for an observatory. The reservation was 

 in fact, made, but no observatory has been established there. Mr. Abbot carried 

 with him to Mount Whitney a pyrheliometer and wet and dry thermometers, 

 and made observations on the summit both in the afternoon and morning hours. 

 Both he and Mr. Campbell were favorably impressed with the advantages of the 

 place for observing, and with the relative convenience of ascending the mountain, 

 considering its great altitude. Fine building stone, sand, and water were found 

 at the summit. Messrs. Campbell and Abbot, therefore, recommended to the 

 Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution that a grant from the Hodgkins fund 

 should be made for the purpose of erecting on the summit of Mount Whitney a 

 stone and steel house to shelter observers who might apply to the Institution for 

 the use of the house to promote investigations in any branch of science. This 

 recommendation was approved, and the house is now in course of construction 

 (July,_i909)."« 



In the years 1882 and 1883 the Academy lost four of its 

 original members, besides the President, Professor Wm. B. 



"Rep. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1884, p. 11. 

 "Smithsonian Report for 1909, pp. 65, 66. 

 6 



