Evening star., 1914-04-26

ern cross but i seems TO me that its
beauty has been greatly exaggerated.
There are onlN four stars in il. and
they are SO small that you have to look
hard 10 find them. They do not compare
with the great dipper Nanv OF tho
other stars are far more brilliant than
IN rhe north. This Is OF the Milky
Way and Of the most - the planets.
have been on the "a iator when 10
path OF planet on the stll waters oc
the ocean was almost wei marked
as that Of the moon. and in riding ar
night up the Amazon river the stars
We're SO close ii seemed though I
could almost reach out ar1 grasp them
Another reason for moving the Harvard
observatory is that its work has resulted
in the southern heavens having been
pretty thoroughly studied and mapped.
and that reason for its existence has t.
some extent passed away.
The story of the establishment OF this
observatory is interesting. 1t is now
Borden died and left s2oo.rn TO
Harvard University. with the understand
ing that the money was 10 he used To
build an Observatory at the best plac"
upon earth FOR the study of the stars.
The college authorities first tried Colo
RADIO and California. and then came to
South America. Their first work was done
back of Lima. at an altitude of about
that of Mt. WASHINGTON on what IS now
called Mt Harvard. bat in 1870 thcv
changed their station to Arequpa The
change was made because this place WAS
thought TO have more clear days ant
clear nights than any other locality
earth Since then the astronomers OF
the university have been working here
right along. and that not only at the
observatory. but at the automatic mo-
neurological station. which they have
placed on the top of Mt Misti.
Mount MIST is 10. 300 feet high. and fhie
station is said TO be the highest of il
kind in the world. II is higher than any
point in America outside Alaska and II
is fully a mile higher than our observa
tory the top of Pixies Peak. The site
Of the station is on the edge of a huge
crater. which until lately has been send
ing out clouds of yellow silphurous vapor
a thousand feet into the air These
clouds have now stopped and 7 am told
that the volcano has been splitting out
water and steam. No one knows what
this may portend. The automatic instr,i-
ments on the mountain are keeping rec
ord of meteorological movements and the
scientists visit them at intervals and
bring back the results. The ma chimes work
with great regularity. but sometimes the
mountain is SO covered with snow and al
other times visited by terrible Winds so
that there may now and then be break
Prof. Bailey. who established the station
had great trouble in getting the Indians
to help him up the volcano with the in
struments. and it took large number OF
mules to carry the material. At the top
he found an iron cross standing and at
this the Indians fell down and wor-
SHIPPED.
/ wish 1 could take you over the trip I
made up the Andes from Mollendo to
Arequipa- The country is more dreary
and wilder in aspect than that above
Lima We rode for miles xpifb b,,,
blade Of grass or anything green. We
passed over great beds of sand. walled
with bluffs that had been ground
smooth by the winds that the strata
showed forth. We passed travelling sand
hills, great crescents or dunes, made by
the grains of sand rolling over and over
up the hill until they reached the top of
the crest and rolled down the inside. Fur
ther on the sand had cut into the rock OF
the mountains. making great cracks IN it
like the wrinkles on an old womans s
face. All the erosion here comes from
the winds. There is no rain whatever and
nevertheless the rocks in many places are
ground to a powder.
Further on up the railroad the Andes
grew wilder. and We seemed to have
reached the very heart of old Mother
Earth. Everything was rock and there
was not a bit of green to be seen There
was no SOIL. Indeed, 1t seemed as though
the skin of vegetation and life had been
peeled from the EARTH and that we had
our great rocky ball before us as it was
before plant life or animal life had spr,,nr
into being.
At the same time. the scenery was
magnificent. The air is so clear here
that you can see for miles, and the clouds;
painted velvet spots the hills Toward
evening the sun tinted the mountains
with the most delicate blues. pinks. Law
enders and mauves, and the whole looked
like mighty picture in colors. instan-
taneously sketched by the hands of the
gods. As We started out we could see
the ocean rolling its spray high on the
beach. and at the close of our journey
the moon was just rising over the snow
of the mountains above old Arequipa
The whole formed a panorama such as I
have seen nowhere else. and such as l
venture can be seen nowhere else in the
world.
FRANK G. CARPENTER