July 17, 1890] 



NATURE 



275 



I it, for the wood was completely buried, and only a short 



I length of the pole visible. Even Rojacher had not fore- 



I seen this, he being convinced that falls of snow were 



' considerably less on the heights. So far he was right. 



The fall had been lighter above than below ; but then 

 below it had been almost unparalleled. To have formed 

 an estimate of the quantity of snow that fell that winter 

 on the Tauern, I should have needed a previous know- 

 ledge of the locality in summer ; as, unfortunately, I 

 had not that, I was obliged to content myself with 

 Rojacher's computation at various points. The deepest 

 level we could see, was on the lower plateau, some 8200 

 feet above the level of the sea, where the telephone wire 

 stretches over a little glacier valley. Rojacher knew that 

 this wire was carried 66 feet above ground in the deepest 

 part of the valley. On passing by it, we found that the 

 snow not only reached to the wire, but that the valley had 

 become one even snow-field ; thus proving a depth of 

 66 feet in that part. It is unnecessary to give further 

 instances ; no description could afford a true idea of the 

 stupendous masses of snow. They must have been seen 

 to be believed. Rojacher repeatedly said how glad he 

 was that a Vienna Professor should have had the ex- 

 perience ; and even went so far, in his good-natured 

 raillery, as to wish that — without prejudice to my scientific 

 researches— I might taste to the full the meaning of a 

 severe winter on those heights. 



His wish was granted, even beyond his desires, for I 

 spent a February such as had never been known before, 

 not only as regards snow and avalanches, but of de- 

 structive storm and variations of temperature. However, 

 although 1 could have desired finer weather for my 

 investigations, my stay on the Sonnblick was most 

 enjoyable. The mountain sickness, from which I had 

 hitherto always suffered severely, was very slight,and of not 

 above three days' duration. My provisions were good, 

 and lasted out excellently. In fact, I came to the 

 conclusion, as far as health was concerned, that my 

 winter expedition on the Sonnblick suited me infinitely 

 better than a month in the Riviera would have done. 



Shortly before I had started on my expedition there had 

 been such accounts in the Vienna papers of the suffering 

 from cold experienced by the man in charge on the 

 Sonnblick, that I expressed some fears whether I should 

 be able to stand the extreme cold in the house. Ex- 

 perience soon set those fears at rest. Our rooms were 

 most comfortably warmed ; the heating apparatus is 

 perfect ; indeed we had more than once to open a window 

 to let out the hot air. It is quite a fallacy to suppose that 

 one cannot keep warm on the Sonnblick. 



These few remarks may serve to show those to whom 

 their cafe, daily paper, tarok, or whist club are not 

 matters of vital importance, that a winter sojourn on the 

 Sonnblick has no great difficulties — when once they get 

 there. As for occupation, there need be no lack ; at any 

 rate, so I found. On fine days, of which I counted but 

 nine in the four weeks, I could barely give myself time to 

 eat or sleep ; they being entirely devoted to the specific 

 objects of my investigations. On wet ones, I had 

 enough to do examining and verifying the meteorological 

 instruments belonging to the Observatory ; and in initiat- 

 ing its solitary occupant, Peter Lechner, still further into 

 their uses. The results of my observations have been 

 since reported to the Imperial Academy of Sciences in 

 Vienna. 



It was no light work to get my apparatus suitably 

 adjusted, all my observations having had to be made in 

 the open air ; and it is thanks to the skill and indefatig- 

 able energy of "the Hermit of the Sonnblick"' that 1 



' Alone for the most part throughout the year, cut off from all intercourse 

 ■iiring the worst of the winter months, his occupation is to speak through 

 i!ie telephone thre? times daily, to record his readings on tfie maximum 

 and minimum thermimeters, on the sunshine recorder, the psychrometer, 

 the hygrometer, and the hygrograph, on the anemometer, the barometer, 



NO. 108 1, VOL. 42] 



succeeded so well. Lechner is a most devoted servant 

 of science, and carries out all his duties on that solitary 

 peak in the most conscientious manner. He assisted me 

 too in my observations on the radiation of the earth, and 

 the sparkle of the stars. As these required to be made 

 at night, the cold rendered it necessary to be well pro- 

 tected with fur-lined boots, fur travelling coat, fur gaiters 

 and fur cap, well down over the ears ; otherwise I could 

 not have withstood those nights, standing and sitting, as 

 we often required to do for hours, in a temperature of 

 -4° F. 



The simultaneity of my observations with those of Dr. 

 Trabert were certified by the telephone, which acted 

 admirably. The day after I arrived on the Sonnblick, 

 the interruption between Kolm and Rauris had been 

 repaired, and from that time there was only one day when 

 connection was broken again— that time, unfortunately ,^ 

 between the Sonnblick and Berghaus, so that we were 

 quite cut off. The next day, however, the point of 

 breakage was found, and connection made again. It is 

 no little difficulty to find out the point of breakage on 

 such a height, and when the whole wire is buried under 

 the sno\\fc 



Herr Rojacher has found a method, I do not know if 

 in use elsewhere — anyway he found it out for himself 

 It is, of course, known to electricians that two near 

 telephone stations can speak with each other if instead of 

 one of the earth plates, connection is effected by means of 

 any large mass of metal, as a stove, for instance, with 

 which one of the telephones is connected. By analogy 

 it ought also to be known (I do not know if it is) that in 

 the case of three stations, as Kolm, Bodenhaus, and 

 Rauris, should there be an interruption between Boden- 

 haus and Rauris, if that interruption has occurred near 

 Rauris, Kolm and Bodenhaus would still be able to speak 

 together, although, through the want of the ground con- 

 ductor, there is no closed circuit. I have made that 

 experiment myself. Now the above-mentioned larger 

 mass of metal can be made to replace the wire from 

 Bodenhaus to the point of interruption, supposing the 

 wire to be long enough. It was on this last hypothesis 

 that Rojacher founded his method— that of seeking the 

 point where communication ceases up in the snow-fields. 

 Taking a hand telephone with him, he starts from one 

 of the stations between which communication is inter- 

 rupted, and connects the hand telephone with the wire 

 at one of the Uiitersuchungstangen (test poles) that are 

 placed at intervals, and through which the wire passes, 

 thus raised in triangular form out of the snow. As long as 

 he can still speak with the station whence he has come 

 he knows that the breakage has occurred farther on. 

 When he can no longer speak he fixes a trumpet on to the 

 telephone ; if the answer, also spoken through a trumpet, 

 be audible, the point of breakage is not far off. If the trum- 

 pet tone reaches his ear no longer, the spot is close, and a 

 little examination enables connection to be re-established. 

 Only by this method could connection be as quickly 

 restored under difficulties so immense ; and it is by 

 this means that Rojacher is enabled to send out regular 

 meteorological observations, with scarce a break, through 

 an electrical aparatus perhaps the most perilously placed 

 in the world. 



During my stay on the Sonnblick I had opportunity 

 to witness many rare atmospheric effects ; and to become 

 more closely acquainted with meteorological phenomena 

 at that altitude. The second day I was there I saw a 

 splendid sight. A white mist enveloped the whole base 

 of the mountain up to within 500 feet of the summit ; the 

 shadow of the house on the Sonnblick being clearly pro- 

 jected on it. Suddenly the shadow was surrounded by a 



and several other instruments ; he hears, besides his own voice, generally 

 that of one of his former comrades at the Miner's House where he used 

 to work, inquiring, " Is all well on the Sonnblick? " And then the former 

 silence is resumed.— Translator's note, from 5^<j«</a/rf of December 18, i88<» 



