^8 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 160. 



on the Pampa de los Huesos, when an expedi- 

 tion is made to the summit. 



The most interesting of all the meteorological 

 stations in Peru — indeed, the most interesting 

 meteorological station in the world, because it 

 is the highest in the world — is that on the summit 

 of the Misti, at an altitude of 19,200 feet above 

 the level of the sea. This was established by- 

 Professor S. I. Bailey in October, 1893. The shape 

 of the Misti is that of an almost perfect, al- 

 though more or less truncated cone, and the 

 conditions of exposure of the instruments are as 

 nearly perfect as it is possible to obtain on a 

 mountain. The instruments now in use on the 

 summit are dry- and wet-bulb and maximum and 

 minimum thermometers, rain-gauge, baro- 

 graph, thermograph and hygrograph. There is 

 also a meteorograph, constructed by Fergusson, 

 of Blue Hill Observatory, especially for this 

 station, and designed to record temperature, 

 pressure, humidity, and wind direction and 

 velocity, and to run three months with- 

 out re-winding. This meteorograph has not 

 yet given as complete records as it was 

 originally hoped would be obtained from it. For 

 some months after its establishment the Misti 

 station, together with the Huesos and Mont 

 Blanc stations, was visited by one of the assist- 

 ants in the Observatory once in ten days, but 

 lately not more thar^ one visit a month has been 

 possible. The trip is by no means an easy one, 

 and the altitude of the Misti is so great that 

 almost every one going there suffers from 

 soroche, or mountain sickness. The writer has 

 twice visited the ' highest meteorological sta- 

 tion in the world ' during his present stay in 

 Peru, and both times had some experience in 

 the unpleasant symptoms of soroche. Although 

 it has thus far been impossible, in view of the 

 great altitude and the distance of the station, to 

 secure complete and continuous records from it, 

 still the broken records which have been ob- 

 tained are so interesting that this, to a consider- 

 able extent, makes up for their fragmental char- 

 acter. 



The seventh station is at some distance far- 

 ther north, at Cuzco (lat. 13° 30' 55" S.; 

 long. 74° 24' 30" W., approximately), lying 

 in a valley between the eastern and western 

 ranges of the Cordillera, at an elevation of 



11,378 feet above sea-level. It is rather an in- 

 teresting fact that here, in the ancient capital 

 of the Incas, a North American university 

 should be maintaining a meteorological station. 

 Cuzco is at present distant from Arequipa five 

 days' journey ; two days being spent in the 

 train, one in a vehicle and two on horseback. 

 The instruments are wet- and dry-bulb and 

 maximum and minimum thermometers, rain- 

 gauge, wind-vane, Pickering sunshine recorder, 

 barograph and thermograph. 



The last station, the farthest from Mejia, is 

 Echarati, on the eastern slopes of the eastern 

 ranges of the Cordillera, and in the fertile val- 

 ley of the Urubamba, about 130 miles north of 

 Cuzco. Echarati is at present just at the outer 

 limits of what may be called civilized Peru, for 

 a short distance beyond it comes a wild terri- 

 tory, inhabited altogether by Indians, through 

 which white men seldom pass. When first es- 

 tablished, in 1894, the shelter was at Santa 

 Ana, about 30 miles nearer Cuzco, but last year 

 the instruments were removed farther north, 

 to their present location. The equipment is 

 the same as at Cuzco. The altitude is 3,300 

 feet. 



A glance at a good map of Peru will show at 

 once what a magnificent series of stations 

 Harvard has thus established in this hitherto 

 meteorologically unknown country. Beaching 

 from sea-level across the desert pampa of Islay 

 to Arequipa, they continue on up past 13,400 

 and 15,700 to 19,200 feet, and then down, 

 towards the north, to 11,378 feet and finally 

 to 3,300 feet. The line of stations thus cuts 

 diagonally across the desert belt of Peru and 

 extends through a region of increasing rainfall 

 down to the well-watered valley of Urubamba, 

 which belongs to the Amazon water-shed. That 

 the large number of observations already col- 

 lected in Peru, and now being tabulated for 

 publication, will furnish data of the greatest 

 interest and value is a foregone conclusion. 

 R. DeC. Waed. 



Harvabd College Obseevatoby, 

 Aeequipa, Peeu, December 1, 1897. 



THE CEUSTACEAN GENUS SCYLLAEIDES. 



While looking into the anatomy and no- 

 menclature of the Astacoidean crustaceans, I in- 



