Notes

Abstract

THE Directors of the Ben Nevis Observatory met on Thursday, 6th inst, and out of a list of nineteen applicants elected Mr. R. T. Omond, Edinburgh, Superintendent of the Observatory. Mr. Omond was a distinguished student of Edinburgh University, and for the past six or seven years has been chief assistant of Prof. Tait in conducting an extended series of physical experiments on the influence of pressure on deep-sea thermometers, the maximum density of water under different pressures, and cognate subjects of inquiry. The results of his work have been communicated in the form or papers to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Mr. Omond's duties began from the above date; and shortly two assistants will be appointed, so that in October next a staff of three observers will have taken up their station at the Observatory, prepared to enter upon the work of the coming winter. The highest section of the bridle-road to the summit of the Ben was finished on Thursday at noon, and the first pair of horses which ever ascended the mountain made the ascent in the afternoon, carrying 2 cwt. each of building material. The building of the permanent Observatory commenced on the following day. A number of horses are employed carrying up material, and the Observatory is expected to be finished early next month. Arrangements are also being made for laying a telegraphic cable from Fort William to the Observatory, and it is fully expected that the work will be finished by the time the observers take up their residence on the Ben. We understand that the directors have asked Mr. Buchan, secretary of the Scottish Meteorological Society, to visit several of the more important meteorological observatories on the Continent, beginning with that of Hamburg, and including some of the more notable high-level stations, and report on the autonntic and other instruments in use there, with a view to a full and satisfactory equipment of the Ben Nevis Observatory next summer. During the coming winter the work will be mostly restricted to eye observations, with the object of collecting information regarding the climate of the Ben, so as to form some guide to the directors in determining the nature of the automatic and other instruments that will be required for making the various observations and conducting the important physical researches which it is proposed to carry out.