Whitney as Site for Meteorological Observatory. loi 



Whitney. There has never, to my knowledge, been a line of 

 levels run between the two places, and the only determination 

 of the height of the town that I have ever found is the one given 

 by Captain Wheeler — namely, 3,810 feet; this, however, is baro- 

 metric. 



" There is a ' railroad tangent ' at Lone Pine station over 

 twenty miles long. It is absolutely straight and nearly level. 

 It would be easy to measure off a base line four or five miles 

 long, and arrive at a good measure of the elevation of the 

 mountain; this might be still further improved by simultaneous 

 angles observed from the mountain and the station. Such a 

 measurement would depend on the elevation of the rail, of 

 course, but this I think can be checked up. A survey has been 

 run from this point to Mojave on the line of the Southern Pacific 

 near Los Angeles. If the results of this latter survey could be 

 obtained, we would know better how much reliance to put on the 

 figures 3,658. It has long been a desire of mine to make this 

 triangulation, for the angle of elevation is over 6° and the dis- 

 tance fifteen miles only. But I could not put very much faith 

 on the levels over 550 miles of such rough country." 



Under date of January 16, 1904, the Director of the 

 United States Geological Survey, says: — 



" Regarding the relative elevation of the railway station 

 near Lone Pine, Cal., and the barometric station in that town 

 occupied by Professor Langley, the only information that I have 

 been able to get is to the effect that the difference in elevation 

 is slight, probably not exceeding ten feet, the site of the town 

 being the higher. 



" More to the purpose, however, is the fact that this office 

 has run a line of levels from the sea through the San Joaquin 

 Valley, and up the south fork of the Kaweah River to Farewell 

 Gap, thence connecting by vertical angles with the summit of Mt. 

 Whitney, obtaining, as a result, 14,434 feet. I do not consider 

 this result as conclusive, inasmuch as the last link in the chain 

 consists of a single vertical angle at a distance of thirty-four 

 miles." 



