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MOUNT WASHINGTON IN WINTER 
Y the kindness of an American friend, we have been 
favoured with a Boston newspaper containing an 
account of an important meteorological experiment which 
has recently been tried in America with the greatest suc- 
cess; we refer to the establishment of a winter observatory 
on the summit of Mount Washington at an elevation of 
something like 10,000 feet above sea-level. 
Everybody knows that Mount Washington, in New 
Hampshire, is visited by thousands of persons in the 
summer months, and that its climate corresponds better 
with that of Labrador or Greenland than with that of 
New England. In the winter universal desolation reigns 
there ; not even the proprietors of the hotels upon the 
summit venturing from their snug quarters below to learn 
what events are transpiring upon the icy cone. The 
aborigines declared it to be sure death if anyone climbed 
the mountain—since it was the sanctuary of divinities 
who would not suffer their abode to be scanned with 
impunity. Their successors first adventurously found the 
summit—then erected rude places for shelter, and finally 
constructed a carriage road and railway, so that even the 
most feeble persons could view the broad panorama. But 
these visits were confined to the warmer months, with a 
few rare exceptions. 
Twelve years ago Profs. C. H. Hitchcock and J. H. 
Huntington, independently of each other, conceived the 
project of spending the winter upon the summit of Mount 
Washington, but the project did not take shape till the 
organisation of the Geological Survey of New Hampshire 
in 1868. They found it impossible to make the necessary 
preparations for occupying the summit during the winter 
of 1868, chiefly for want of a dwelling. Hence they sought 
for a less elevated summit, where a single winter’s ex- 
perience might prepare the way for the greater adventure. 
That peak was Mooselauke, nearly 5,000 feet above the 
ocean. The lessee, D. G. Marsh, of Warren, N.H., oblig- 
ingly placed his house at the service of Prof. Huntington 
and his comrade, A. F. Clough, of Warren, photographer. 
Their three months’ occupation of Mooselauke was full of 
adventure, and experiences were acquired of the highest 
importance. The scientific results were important, dis- 
closing the knowledge of violent winds there accurately 
measured, and remarkable forms of frost-work never be- 
fore described or photographed. Attention was called to 
this mountain, and a carriage road became a necessity, 
which was constructed in the following summer. 
In the month of September, 1869, the Mount Wash- 
ington Railway Company generously tendered the use of 
their depot upon the summit to this meteorological party 
during the winter; and the necessary supplies were 
immediately purchased and forwarded to the mountain. 
The enterprise, though of a meteorological character, has 
been adopted by the Geological Survey of the State, while 
the expense has been assumed by the State geologist, 
relying upon a sympathising public to provide the funds 
by subscription. 
Congress recently appropriated funds for the establish- 
ment of a “Bureau of Telegrams and Reports for the 
Benefit of Commerce.” After some correspondence with 
the efficient officer in charge of this bureau, General Myer 
ordered an insulated telegraph wire with suitable instru- 
ments tu be sent to the mountain, in order to facilitate the 
transmission of the meteorological reports, both to the 
public and to the office of the bureau in Washington. 
The wire has been laid, and the summit is now in tele- 
graphic communication with the world. And the chief 
signal officer also detailed for special service upon the 
mountain an experienced telegrapher and meteorologist, 
Sergeant Theodore Smith, of the U.S. Army. 
The photographers of the expedition are Mr, A. F.Clough, 
of Warren, and Mr. Howard A. Kimball, of Concord, N.H. 
The latter gentleman spent much time in providing photo- 
NATURE 
| without sitting down to rest. 


[ eb. 16, 1871 
graphic material for the mountain, and in soliciting sub- 
scriptions. Their views of the peculiar phenomena of 
the mountain will soon be exhibited. 
Thus the party consists of six persons: Prof. Hitch- 
cock, whose office in Hanover, N.H., is connected by 
telegraph with the summit; Prof Huntington and Mr. 
Nelson, observers ; Messrs. Clough and Kimball, photo- 
graphers ; and Sergeant Smith, telegrapher and observer. 
All of them are not upon the mountain at the same time. 
They relieve each other to a considerable extent in the 
work, and the public will be kept informed of their where- 
abouts. 
From the dépét of the Mount Washington Railway in 
summer, the ascent on foot, if a person is accustomed to 
walking, is comparatively easy. Although the ties are 
three feet apart, and there is a rise of a foot in three 
part of the way, yet a person with muscles strong from 
exercise, can walk to the very summit of the mountain 
But suppose it is winter. 
The snow has accumulated to a considerable depths 
even in the ties, but then it is no great hindrance ; 
should it, however, be attempted a second time, you will 
find that the snow that was compressed beneath the feet 
has changed to ice, and the oval forms give a still less se- 
cure footing ; if itis thawing, and the ice is almost ready to 
slip off as you tread upon it, every one will see that upon 
a trestle thirty feet high walking is somewhat dangerous, 
and to walk down is a feat from which even a most ex- 
pert acrobat would shrink. If at the dépét we take snow 
shoes, we can walk with comparative ease half way up, 
and then the snow is so compact that they are no longer 
needed, and as there are few irregularities in the surface 
the walking is better than in summer. 
Above the limit of the trees the railway is covered with 
ice of every fantastic shape, and the framework of the 
Gulf tank is now so ornamented that one can hardly 
believe that it is the rude structure seen in summer, 
The Lizzie Bourne Monument, which one is accus- 
tomed to see only a rough pile of stones, is now an object 
of architectural beauty such as no sculptor can carve from 
marble. Immediately above the monument the timber 
trestles are completely covered with deposits of frozen 
mist extending two or three feet horizontally from the 
timber on which the track is laid, and every piece of 
timber which forms the trestle is ornamented with beauti- 
ful forms of frost-work, deposited in graceful curves as 
the wind sweeps through the trestle. 
On the summit, the buildings, the piles of rock and 
stones, so rough in summer, are now completely covered 
with frost, while the snow fills the spaces between the 
jagged rocks. On the sides of the buildings towards the 
north-west the frost has accumulated, so that now it is 
more than a foot in thickness. The frost-work on the 
dépét, while it has everywhere the same general appear- 
ance, the points show exactly the direction of the wind as 
it came into every nook and corner of the building. The 
frost on the braces and timbers that extend outward seems 
like one triangular mass, and on the chains it is often two 
feet in diameter. The correspondent then adds :— 
“ Although I was on the mountain for ten daysin October, 
yet I did not go to stay permanently until November 12. 
It was expected that some of the party would be ready to 
go with me, but as they were not | went alone, and it was 
not till the last day of November that anyone came, so 
that I had the house and the mountain all to myself for 
nearly three weeks. During the greater part of November 
the weather was remarkably pleasant. On the 15th, all day 
| long, and far into the night, the clouds were below the 
summit of the mountain, and most of the time they covered 
the entire country. At times only the very highest 
point of Mount Washington was above theclouds. It 
reminded me forcibly of the time, during the Champlain 
period, when the whole of New England, except Mount 
Washington, was beneath the waves of the ocean. As 


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