436 REPORT—1883. 
to see whether the irregularities found by the author in the glacier-motion are of 
frequent occurrence, or whether they are due to some special disturbing influences. 
5. Note on some recent Astronomical Experiments at High Elevations 
in the Andes. By RaueH Copetannd, Ph.D. 
In the earlier part of the paper the author narrates the circumstances which 
Jed him to undertake these experiments on his return from an expedition to observe 
the last transit of Venus, and the exceptional difficulties encountered, owing to the 
season of the year and the state of affairs in northern South America. He also 
expresses his obligation to Lord Crawford for the loan of instruments and other 
help, and to the Royal Mail Steam Packet, the Panama Railway, and to the Pacific 
Steam Navigation Companies for liberal aid, and especially to Mr. Thorndike, 
lessee of the remarkable railway which, starting from Mollendo, on the Pacific, 
crosses the Western Andes at a height of 14,666 feet, terminating at Puno, on 
Lake Titicaca, 12,505 feet. On arriving at Vincocaya (14,360 feet), the loftiest 
station on this line, the author found that the weather was so unsettled that he 
went on with some of the lighter instruments to La Paz, in Bolivia (12,050 feet). 
His experiences are thus narrated. 
‘La Paz being on the second chain of the Andes from the coast, the weather 
there was not nearly so bad as at Vincocaya, Unfortunately it was full moon, so 
that I had not a very good chance of testing the purity of the air, but on the night 
of February 21, when the moon was almost exactly full, and at the same altitude, 
but more than 20° from the constellation of the Bull, I made a naked-eye sketch 
of the Hyades and Pleiades. In the Pleiades I distinctly made out ten stars, 
D.M. + 24°, 553 and 556, which are both 7:0 mag., being seen as one star, and 
D.M. + 24°, 546, of 6°3 mag., being clearly visible. In the head of Taurus I made 
out seventeen stars, two of which, D.M. + 16°, 586 and 605, resp. 6:0 and 5:0 mag., 
are not in Argelander’s ‘ Uranometria Nova,” which is supposed to contain all stars 
seen by an average eye in Central Murope. o Tauri was also easily seen to be 
double. All this was very promising. 
‘Thinking I might now venture on giving Vincocaya a regular trial, with my 
G-inch telescope mounted on an extempore stand, and expecting by this time to meet 
my more complete apparatus, I returned thither, arriving on the last day of 
February. I stayed there seventeen days, but almost all that time the weather 
was terribly unsettled. The late mornings were, indeed, fairly sunny, but the air 
was filled with visible exhalations from the sloppy pampa, which gradually thickened 
into dense clouds by shortly after noon; then came a tremendous thunderstorm, that 
lasted until dark. This storm poured down first showers of hail, and then torrents 
of rain that gradually changed into snow as night came on. The nights were 
almost absolutely overcast, but in the morning came a short interval of bright sun- 
shine, as already mentioned, that rapidly melted the accumulated snow, and so formed 
the thunder-clouds which broke in the afternoon. A few glimpses of stars in the night 
showed good images, and gave hopes of what might be done when the season of 
“tempestades” had passed. I afterwards found that this was the usual character 
of the weather from the middle of December until the end of March. As a matter 
of fact the last storm of thunder and rain occurred at Vincocaya on March 31. 
Tired of inactivity, I descended to Puno, on the western shore of Lake Titicaca, on 
March 17. Here I remounted my telescope at a height of 12,540 feet above the 
sea. At first the weather was little better than on the more elevated pampas; 
however it gradually cleared up, and I was able to observe in a more or less 
regular way with the incomplete apparatus at my disposal. I shortly afterwards 
learnt that considerable difficulties had arisen as to the propriety of forwarding the 
remaining parts of my instruments to me through the Chilian lines, and it even 
became necessary to refer the matter to the Chilian seat of Government at Santiago.. 
Eventually every facility was granted, but as a matter of fact I did not receive my 
apparatus until June 2. 
‘In the meantime I had kept a kind of running meteorological journal, not tying: 
