8 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



The coordinates of the peaks are : — 



Rainier ....46° 51' 5" N., 121° 45' 28" W. 



Shasta 41° 24' 28" N., 122° 11' 49" W. 



Whitney ...36° 34' 33" N., 118° 1/ 32" W. 

 The elevations are : — 



Rainier I4,394 feet, approximately. 



Shasta 14,200 feet, approximately. 



Whitney 14,502 feet, true. 



These peaks, it will be noted, are so located as to 

 offer an ideal opportunity for studying weather con- 

 ditions on the Pacific Coast. They stand like three 

 sentinels in a stretch of seven hundred miles, at such 

 distances from one another and so related to the 

 orography of the coast that an almost unparalleled op- 

 portunity is afforded for obtaining a cross-section of 

 the general storm tracks and prevailing wind direction 

 at levels extending almost from the sea to a height of 

 4,420 meters (14,500 feet). A chain of high-level ob- 

 servatories is particularly desirable on the Pacific Coast, 

 masmuch as the general climatic conditions are essentially 

 different from those of other sections of the country, 

 being in fact materially modified by the proximity of 

 the ocean and the extremely diversified topography of 

 the coast. As stations for research and original investi- 

 gation of problems connected with the physics of the 

 atmosphere, these peaks are exceptionally well adapted. 

 The most northern, Rainier, Hes directly in the mean 

 storm-track, and permits of experimentation upon cloudy 

 condensation in the free air, rainfall, and snowfall 

 throughout the entire gamut of pressure and temperature 

 conditions. The most southern peak, Whitney, is located 

 in a region probably the driest in the United States. 

 With nearly half of the sensible atmosphere below its 

 summit and a minimum amount of water-vapor present, 

 no better site could be found for investigating the part 

 played by the atmosphere in the absorption of solar en- 

 ergy. The discoveries made at all lower-level observa- 



