OCR Text |
Show ALTITUDMS FIXED PIKE'8 PEAK 14,109 FEET' ABOVE SEA LEVEL. Government Survey Determines Ex-act Ex-act Height of Famous Mountain-Difficulties Mountain-Difficulties Encountered by the Party. Washington. Tho various federal surveys of the country aro carefully determining all tho high polntB, tho elevutlons of well-known mountains and thoso of other Important places, and, In many Instances, shntterlriK prior notions of tho holghts of certain prominent landmarks. I'orhaps It has not occurred to ovcry ono how these nccurato clovatlons aro secured; how, for Instance, Is round tho exact altitude nbovo tho sea lovel of some high peukB in tho Ultie Illdgo or in tho Whlto mountains, or Plko's Peak, or Mount Shasta, or -Mount Whitney, the highest peak in tho United States. It Is dono by a simple system of leveling, lev-eling, practically tho mothod used by the first crude surveyors employing spirit levels. Of course, tho Instruments Instru-ments for sighting and determining an elovation to a hair's breadth aro vastly different from thoso UBed 100 years ugo; but tho principle 1b tho same. In other words, all surveys to detormlno elevations or altitudes begin be-gin at tho Heiuliore, If accuracy is do-sired. Prom there a sight is mndo through a telescopo to a rod placed a few hundred hun-dred feet Inland, and then from that point on to nnotlier rod. and so on for miles nnd hundreds of miles, until tho point desired or tho other ocean Is reached. Hut it means a great many sights and very wonderful accuracy to got as far away from tho Atlantic or the Pacific as Plko'a Peak, and to be ablo to say that the apex of that famous fa-mous mountain is so many feet and so many Inches abovo mean sea lovel. This, however, Is what tho geological geologi-cal survey has done tho past season, j . 8urvey Tablet on Highest Rock of Pike's Peak. correcting tho formerly established altitudes; al-titudes; the 11 rat of which was shown to bo In orror by moro than a hundred feet. This does not mean that the surveyors sur-veyors havo run a lino of lovcls during a slnglo season all tho way from tho ocean to Plko's Peak. They elmply started from somo established point and carried tho work up to tho summit of tho mountain. All of tho federal surveys aro constantly con-stantly establishing points of exact elevation. Thus, if any of tho survey sur-vey organizations' havo accurately fixed tho nltltudo of Colorado Springs for instance, it would rcqulro tho work of fonly a week or so for a party starting at Colorado Springs to carry its lino of levels up to tho summit of Plko's Peak. Tho elevation of Plko's Peak was determined' by Parry somo tlmo prior to 1884, barometrically, ub 14.21G feet, Later tho elevation as determined by the signal service was 14,147 feet, and moro rocontly tho coast survoy determination gave the elovation as 14.108 feot nnd tho weather bureau as 14,111 feet. ' In 1907 a lovol party in clmrgo of Charles Hurl man of tho United States geological survey, started from a survey sur-vey benchmark in Manltou, near tho foot of tho famous Plko's Peak cog road, and ran a lovel lino to tho summit sum-mit and then across down to a point on tho railroad. Tho cogs In tho center cen-ter of the railroad track furnished excellent ex-cellent turning points 'and tho work progressed rapidly until tho summit was ncared, when bad weathor very much delayed mutters and tho surveyors sur-veyors suffered severely from exposure ex-posure , To liaiifllo n rod and leveling Instrument Instru-ment wlthMho thermometer down to zero and a stirf wind blowing Is no child's pluy nnd tho weathor conditions condi-tions aro most uncurtain Iti theso high altitudes, Hoforo Mr. IInrt;tian "had comploted his lino ho was caught In a snowstorm ojkI had to run tho last eight in I let) of levels through snow from eight to fourteen inches deep. To convey an Idea of the sudden weather changes which may occur In tho mountains In summertlmo, it may be interesting to describe tho conditions con-ditions on tho day last September that tho tablot marking tho exact elovation of tho summit of Pike's Peak, which Is 14.109 feet, was sot. "When tho summit of tho peak was reached," said C, B. Ilarnard, tho geographer geo-grapher in charge of tho survoy party, "tho day was an ideal one, with a t,om-poraturo t,om-poraturo of about CO degrees and 117 wind. Ileforo tho setting of tho tnb-let tnb-let was finished, somo few hours later, tho tcmporaturo had (alien to 25 degrees, de-grees, it was snowing hard and a gala of wind was blowing at tho rato of 40 miles an hour," 4k-1--. " -ir.t. 'tJ. mkv.m tziv-vw -am asajsj kjfMyUSjyflBBJBJBJBBBBBfl |