802 MR J. Y. BUCHANAN ON THE 



which cannot be expressed in numbers. They are as important as those which can be 

 so expressed ; and they can be brought into the discussion of the meteorology of the 

 mountain with their due weight and importance only by men who have spent a con- 

 siderable time there as observers. Whether wet or dry, the fog which characterises the 

 climate of the mountain is nothing but cloud under another name. The lower surface 

 of the clouds which form on the hills rising out of the Western Ocean is found generally 

 at a height of about three thousand feet above the sea. On the west coast of Scotland 

 the air is very damp, and the clouds abundant, consequently the observatory on the 

 summit of Ben Nevis is usually situated in the heart of the common clouds of the 

 country. It may, therefore, be claimed that it is in reality an observatory established 

 in the clouds, and that the observations made in it furnish a record of the meteorology 

 of the clouds. In this respect the observatory of Ben Nevis is unique. 



[Summary Tables. 



