The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-06-19

all heard Of the Southern Cross, which my
friend, Dr. Talmage, says looks to him like
the handwriting Of God on the face of the
sky. don't think much of It, 1t is a meas
ly cross at best. There are only four stars
in it that are at all bright, and you
have to look hard to find them. There are,
however, wonderful things outside of this,
and the best observations so far made in
recent years of the southern heavens have
been made by these Harvard scientists.
They have four great telescopes at Are
quipa,' which night after night through the
nine clear months of the year are pointed
at the stars. Connected with each of these
telescopes is a Photographic apparatus
which records the movements of such stars
as the scientists wish to study, and which
by fine machinery move along with the
stars until their images and those of their
surroundings are registered on the photo
graphic plate The Bruce telescope. for in
stance, is. I believe. the largest of its kind
in the world. though l am not sure of this
1t has lens twenty-four inches in diameter
and gives photographs on plates fourteen by
seventeen inches in size. 1 took a look
through the Bruce telescope during my visit
to the observatory. The tube of the in
strument must weigh more than a ton, but
it is so delicately hung that a child could
move it. 1t runs by a clock and heavy
weight. The chief part OF the work done at
the observatory is Photographic the heav-
ems. Five Photographic instruments are
kept going, and about fifty plates are made
every night. Last year more than five
thousand plates were exposed and develop
ed. The negatives are shipped at once to
the University of Harvard at Cambridge
and are there used for study and scientific
work. They are kept on file there and form
a wonderful astronomical library of the
southern heavens. Through this observa-
tory Harvard College has the best adj
vantages of the world for astronomical re-
search. The scientists of Cambridge are al
ways watching the northern heavens, but
they cannot see much below the equator.
The Arequipa observatory takes in the
whole sky from the equator to the south
pole, the two giving complete view of the
heavens.
THE HIGHEST OBSERVATORY.
Within the last few years the Arequipa
astronomers here have established sta
ton on the top of Mount Misti. This noun
tain is one of the highest of the Andes. 1t
lies just back of Arequipa, standing out
against the horizon almost alone in its
grandeur, its top kissing the sky at an alti-
tude of 10 200 feet above the sea. 1t is some
thousands of feet higher than any point in
America, and is full mile higher than our
observatory on Pixies Peak. 1t is by more
than $500 feet loftier than any other
scientific station of the world. The site of
the station is on the edge of huge crater,
which now and then sends clouds of yellow
sulphurous vapor a thousand feet into the
air. Mount Misti is an extinct volcano but
it is not dead, and it may at any time break
out into eruption. At this great altitude,
nearly four miles above the sea, the Har-
ward men have now the finest of scientific
instruments for registering the conditions of
the atmosphere, the velocity of the winds,
the pressure of the barometer and other
conditions. The instruments are of course
automatic, running for three months with
out being touched. No one could live at
such an altitude. and the scientists
go up only periodically to get the
records and rewind the instruments. AS it
is, the trip is very hard one. Some of the
men get soroche, or mountain Sickness, and
many men cannot make the trip at ALL The
observatory has other stations on the sea
near Mollendo, on the high plateau where
1 now am, and at Cuzco, the famed capital
of the Incas. which is little more than
one hundred miles from Lake Titicaca. The
founding of this wonderful work was done
by Prof. w. H. Pickering and Scion L.
Bailey, of Harvard. the most of the stations
being established by the latter Professor
Bailey has just returned to the United
States, and the observatory and its stations
are now in charge of Mr.. w. B. Clymer, of
Ohio, and Mr.. De Lsle Stewart of Mime
sofa. These young astronomers have con-
tracts to remain here for five years. The
position is not a bad one by any means.
The observatory is situated five hundred
feet above the city of Arequipa, overlooking
the irrigated valley of the Chile river, which
produces the richest of crops the year
round. The home of the observatory is
most comfortable, one of its chief attrac-
tons being Mrs. Stewards little blue-eyed
baby, few months old, born in Peru, which
is as pretty and as healthy any baby
you will find north of the equator.
ACROSS THE PAMPAS.
There are three mountains back of Are
quipa which are higher than any point in
the United States outside of Alaska. Mount
Charcani is higher than Mount Misti and
as you leave the desert and ascend to the
lofty plateau you get a glimpse of Corfu
puno, which is 22,S00 feet above the sea.
Mount Misus snowy summit is in sight for
hours, and 1 watched the f1eecy clouds fly
ing about and below it, sitting in my over
coat on the rear platform of the car We
left Arequipa in the early morning, and at
II o'clock stopped at the station of Punta
de Arrieros for breakfast. This station is
more than two and a half miles above the
sea. 1t consists of a few stone huts
matched with straw, and a one-story wood
en- building. made of pine, which, 1 doubt
not, was shipped here from Oregon. There
was a bar at one end of the dining room
presided over by a fat Peruvian girl, and at
the other end were the breakfast tables
The meal cost about 80 cents of our money,
and it good as any 50-cent meal you
can get in the Rockies. First, there was
chicken soup, with rice; then Goldfish balls,
well Drowned; then boiled beef and green
peas, beefsteak spiced with a sauce of
onions and red pepper, a sweet omelet and
a cup of very good tea. After the meal I
bought four clingstone peaches of an In
dian girl for 2 cents and three oranges for
nickel. These eatables, however, all came
from the irrigated valleys or the Iowlands
On the high plateau over which we trav-
eled there was only a scanty fuzzy growth
of moss-like grass. There was not a tree
and only here and there, about a little mud
hut, patch or 50 of potatoes, some barley
which ic oroWu only for fora -