204 



Mountain Meteorological Stations. 



head of the nail was fused, and the wire melted at the same point. 

 Prolonged wind storms are unusual on Pike's Peak and the days 

 are comparatively infrequent when the mean hourly velocity equals or 

 exceeds fifty miles per hour. The most remarkable wind storms were 

 those of September 28-29, 1878, when the mean velocity was seventy 

 miles per hour. The highest extreme velocity, 112 miles per hour, oc- 

 curred May 11, 1881. Higher velocities have frequently been observed 

 at exposed points on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. The daily range of 

 temperature shows a maximum of 14° in July and September and. a 

 minimum of 11° in December. The mean daily range on the Peak is 

 only about one-half of that which obtains on the low plateau country 

 to the eastward. The mean annual temperature is 19.3° with an ex- 

 treme range of 4°, the minimum occurring in 1880 and the maximum 

 in 1879. 



Gen. Greely has shown that the actual atmospheric pressure at 

 Eocky Mountain stations, above 4,000 feet, attains its minimum in 

 January and its maximum in July or August, and that the baro- 

 metric phases are of the same sign, with reference to the annual 

 mean, as the temperature phases at such stations. On Pike's Peak 

 the curves of temperature and pressure are not only alike in having a 

 single bend, but the maximum phase of both occurs in July and the 

 minimum in January. Not only are these elements coincident in 

 their extreme phases, but the annual march is the 1 same, so that the 

 two curves are not only parallel, but almost identical. 



In conclusion: I have kept you at the summit long enough, while 

 presenting some of the peculiarities of this great mountain meteoro- 

 logical station, and you will pardon me if I now let you down rather 

 abruptly, by saying that the trip downward was more rapid than the 

 ascent, less dangerous, as a whole, but quite as irksome. We com- 

 pleted the descent in one day, starting in a snowstorm and passing 

 successively through storms of sleet, hail, rain and thunder, terminat- 

 ing with a clear sky and warm sunshine at Colorado Springs. 



