A mercurial barometer and case belonging to the Experiment Station was installed in the observatory just before winter closed in and has been of great value as a standard with which to compare the barograph. The general outfitting of the observatory was accomplished largely by gifts and loans. A collection of works on meteorology and climatology was furnished by the Weather Bureau and the Experiment Station. An 8x10 camera with extensible bellows was loaned by the Department of Entomology and a 34x44 folding Kodak equipped with Goerz lens by the writer. An Al-Vista (panoramic) camera was later furnished by the Experiment Station to supplement the others. The bedding was procured by withdrawing the sleeping bags and blankets used to such advantage the previous winter at Contact Pass. Provisions for a year and 50 pounds of coal were furnished at the expense of the general fund, as were also two pairs of Canadian snowshoes of special design. Other snow-shoes and clothing for snow trips were furnished by the writer.1 contents deserves a further word of explanation. The pit in which the tank is placed is closed against the sudden entrance of cold by a floor of boards and Malthoid roofing, and by a blanket of snow, caught and held in place by a parapet of rocks raised 2 feet above the level of the floor. This covering prevents the water collected from summer and early autumn rains from freezing until the eve of regular snowfall, when it is measured and removed. By the aid of the same covering, the winter snow that falls into the tank is protected against melting and subsequent freezing until summer, when the covering is removed and the sun reduces the snow to water. The water contents of the tank are protected against excessive evaporation by the wind through the use of a high and comparatively narrow intake pipe, while the effects of both sun and wind are minimized by a floor above the tank and a covering of heavy oil maintained upon the surface of the water. The problem of catching the entire precipitation is still far from solution. The swirling of the air at the mouth of the pipe can probably be checked, but devices to counteract the effects of high winds will be either too complicated to act surely or so simple as to be incapable of automatic adjustment to the varying velocities of the wind. The most satisfactory method seems to be to determine the approximate loss at varying wind velocities and to correct the record of precipitation accordingly. The defect in the method is the difficulty of determining exactly the length of the period of precipitation, but this can be determined with considerable accuracy by a comparison of the records at the Central Station at Reno and at Lewers' Ranch, situated near the eastern base of Mt. Rose. Accurate records of wind velocity should be obtained by means of the new meteorograph. 1. Since the above was written the equipment has been considerably increased. Further safety for observers has been obtained by erecting a permanent shelter hut out of sand bags at Contact Pass (9000 feet) to take the place of the shelter tent and sleeping bags cached in the large Alpine pine that now overarches the hut, PLATE X. Rabbit blankets, some food and oil supplies, a tiny oil stove, with ax and shovel constitute the present equipment. The hut is low but broad enough to accommodate three men sitting or lying. A canvas tunnel, whose mouth can be readily closed by packing stone or snow upon it. affords entrance. The structure will withstand the wildest storm and, despite the low roof and dim interior, will be a haven of rest to storm-bound travelers. A second shelter hut should be constructed at the meadow in Jones' Canyon (7000 feet), where the more difficult portion of the ascent begins and where exhaustion sometimes overtakes the party when the snow is feathery and soft. A heliograph, loaned through the kindness of Captain Brambila, Commandant at the University, was installed at the observatory last autumn for signaling in case of distress. The recording of the evidence on the timber and snow has been greatly im proved by the purchase of a 5 x 7 Century Cirkut camera with a Zeiss-Protar No. VII lens. Panoramic views of any length desired can now be obtained. A sled has been built for winter trips, but a lighter tent and lighter sleeping bags must be procured to make possible the carrying of larger food and photographic supplies. Two gifts of $5.00 each to the general fund by Professor S. B. Doten and one of $10.00 by Professor S. S. Seward, Jr., for any special purpose the writer may designate, have been set aside to form a special "Mt. Rose Fund."" The obtaining of improved instruments for taking observations of temperature, pressure, wind velocity, wind direction, and humidity has been greatly delayed-but perhaps no more so than is usual when the instruments must not only be made but carefully planned as well. A contract was made with Taylor Brothers of Rochester, N. Y., for an improved Short and Mason thermograph and barograph having a range of 35 days in order to reduce the frequency of the observations and the physical fatigue of the winter ascents. Julien P. Friez, instrument maker to the Government, of Baltimore, generously offered to employ his spare time designing an anemometer register having also a range of 35 days. An old anemometer belonging to the Experiment Station was transferred to the summit together with an anemometer mast, a wind vane, and direction points, made through the kindness of Professor J. G. Serugham. These are awaiting installation. On account of repeated delays the contract with Taylor Brothers was revoked and a contract based upon further observation and couference was made with S. P. Fergusson of Blue Hill Observatory, Massachusetts, to furnish a complete meteorograph having a range of 40 days and so readily detachable from the wind vane and anemometer shafts that it can be carried into the observatory for resetting. This 2 1. This fund has been still further increased by a gift of $5.00 by Dr. Cleveland Abbe, Jr., now assistant Editor of the Weather Review, Washington, D. C. 2. This meteorograph has now been received and is undergoing a final test at the University before being placed on Mt. Rose. While the delay has been long, the opportunity for extended study of weather phenomena on Mt. Rose and the adaptation of the instrument during its planning and building to meet them will make it a more successful instrument than the few others of its class have been. One peculiarity of storm action on Mt. Rose will illustrate. This is the action of frost feathers. One would scarcely believe that as wide a surface of frost feathers could gather on the slender rod and small arrow of the wind vane as on the broad tail itself. But during the trip to the observatory, February 22, 1908, this was found to be the case. So evenly balanced were the tail and the arrow of the wind vane on account of the frost feathers which had gathered on it that the vane swung at right angles to the wind. When first noticed, the vane was pointing east under a north wind. It remained in this position during the night, and the next morning, when the freshening wind had blown off a sufficient amount of frost feathers to disturb the present balance of the vane, it suddenly swung round so that its direction was reversed. But it still rode at right angles to the wind. Two hours later, the wind vane had become sufficiently cleared of feathers to swing round to its normal position, pointing into the eye of the wind. This phenomenon was immediately taken into account and the new wind vane being constructed with the meteorograph was deprived of the larger part of its rod, the arrow being placed so close to the tail that no freakish action of the frost could again so balance the vane as to cause it to be false. The probable action of frost feathers on the cups of the anemometer, however, will be more difficult to combat. There seems to be no economical method of preventing them from gathering on the cups, and their presence there can serve only to retard the revolution of the cups and consequently to cause the meteorograph to record a lower wind velocity than actually occurred. But the observed fact that frost feathers form only during the waning of the storm, when the greatest violence of the wind has passed, and disappear quickly after the return of the sun or after the velocity of the wind increases, indicates that the more important part of the |