30 



with many plants native to Labrador and Greenland. 

 The change of climate from the base to the summit is 

 equivalent to that of several degrees north. 



In this paper I shall confine my remarks exclusively to 

 the meteorological phenomena of the mountain. An ex- 

 tended inquiry would be of greater value, but it is impos- 

 sible to more than briefly touch upon the several points 

 under consideration. I do not propose to discuss theories 

 so much as to present facts to show the advantages moun- 

 tain stations oifer over those less elevated. 



Some of the highest authorities have held that the study 

 of meteorology should begin from above. Among these 

 are Biot and Poey. And why meteorologists should have 

 been so long content to study the aspects of the weather 

 within the narrow limits of the lower earth currents, it is 

 hard to decide. It is true that in Europe similar observa- 

 tions to those made on Mount Washington have been main- 

 tained for a limited time, but never till the past year 

 in this country, yet nowhere have they been deemed of 

 much value. 



When we look through the rifts of a low running S. E. 

 scud, and see, at an altitude of less than a mile, an upper 

 current of cirro-cumulus rapidly moving towards the 

 northeast, or in a fair day, observe it progressing at the 

 rate of fifty miles an hour, while at the surface the wind 

 is not above ten miles a desire to investigate the phe- 

 nomenon is aroused, and we devise ways and means to 

 accomplish this end. 



Where shall we go but to some lofty mountain peak 

 that rises to the altitude of the atmospheric current in 

 which that stratum of cloud is drifting? 



East of the meridian of 105 west from Greenwich, 

 over the whole continent, north of the N. E. trades, 

 there is an atmospheric current constantly flowing in a 



