Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/42

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HIS is the only habitable high mountain peak east of the Pacific ranges. Its altitude, six thousand three hundred and thirteen feet above the sea level, tempered by its latitude, thirty-six degrees, together with its isolation from other mountains of similar height, renders it one of the most favorable places for the observation of atmospheric conditions. The clouds here usually float about level with the summit, though they sometimes rise as much as five hundred feet above it, or sink two



thousand feet below; so that it may be said to lie in the track of the clouds.

I regret that I was not better equipped for a thorough study of frost-forms produced by the lateral deposit of the frozen vapor in the clouds during the severe winter of 1892-'93, which I spent upon the summit of Roan Mountain for the sake of an invalid daughter. There was not a hygrometer within reach, hence the amount of moisture in the atmosphere at any given time can not