Mt. Rose Weather Observatory. 183 



station, and others aided indirectly. No little credit is 

 due the horses and "Socrates," the burro, who patiently 

 endured the heavy loads of swaying lumber, though 

 forced to plod over trailless slopes of shifting sand and 

 rock. 



The precipitation-tank was placed lengthwise on the 

 back of old "Rowdy," the most sensible of the horses, in 

 a cradle specially prepared for it, and by degrees reached 

 the summit. Above timber-line a gale was encountered 

 that blew the tank over to a horizontal position at the 

 horse's side, where it was supported by the packer and 

 the horse until assistance arrived. On being unlashed 

 it escaped the grasp of its keepers and bounded wildly 

 down the rough talus to some scrub, where it was allowed 

 to remain for some days, until a favorable opportunity 

 was presented of advancing it to the summit. There it 

 now lies with fetters more secure than ever held Gulliver 

 in the land of the Lilliputians. The sections of the long 

 intake pipe suffered a kinder fate, and after an unevent- 

 ful journey were safely anchored to the base of the 

 thermometer shelter. 



In due time, after many week-end trips and much 

 exposure to early snows and cold, the observatory build- 

 ing was completed. It is eight feet square and seven 

 feet high, and in contour and every appointment is a 

 close imitation of a small ship's cabin. An observation- 

 window of plate-glass affords a panorama extending from 

 Carson City on the east to Truckee on the west, with 

 the expanse of superb Lake Tahoe in the center. 

 Through a smaller window in the door the eye can range 

 from the summits of the Sierra Nevada to Mt. Davidson 

 on the Comstock Lode, with Sierra Valley, Lassen Buttes, 

 Reno, and Pyramid Lake (the catch-basin of Tahoe) as 

 intervening points. At Thanksgiving and New Year 

 parties were storm-bound in the observatory for some 

 days in tolerable comfort, with but little fuel and a tem- 

 perature outside ranging from — 4° to — 6° F. In 

 fact the entire supply of fuel for the winter, outside of 



