On the west are, however, the Rocky Mountains, that
immense chain which begins at the Straits of Magellan,
follows the west coast of South America under the
name of the Andes or Cordilleras, crosses the Isthmus
of Panama, and runs up the whole of North America to
the very shores of the Polar Sea.
These mountains are not very high, and the Alps or
Himalayas would look down upon them with disdain.
In fact, their highest summit is only 10,701 feet
high, whilst Mont Blanc is 14,439, and the highest
summit of the Himalayas is 26,776 feet above the level
of the sea.
But as the Gun Club wished that its telescope, as
well as the Columbiad, should be set up in the States
of the Union, they were obliged to be content with
the Rocky Mountains, and all the necessary material
was sent to the summit of Long’s Peak in the
territory of Missouri.
Neither pen nor language could relate the difficulties
of every kind that the American engineers had to overcome,
and the prodigies of audacity and skill that they
accomplished. Enormous stones, massive pieces
of wrought-iron, heavy corner-clamps, and huge portions
of cylinder had to be raised with an object-glass,
weighing nearly 30,000 lbs., above the line of perpetual
snow for more than 10,000 feet in height, after crossing
desert prairies, impenetrable forests, fearful rapids
far from all centres of population, and in the midst
of savage regions in which every detail of life becomes
an insoluble problem, and, nevertheless, American
genius triumphed over all these obstacles. Less
than a year after beginning the works in the last days
of the month of September, the gigantic reflector
rose in the air to a height of 280 feet. It was
hung from an enormous iron scaffolding; an ingenious
arrangement allowed it to be easily moved towards every
point of the sky, and to follow the stars from one
horizon to the other during their journey across space.
It had cost more than 400,000 dollars. The first
time it was pointed at the moon the observers felt
both curious and uneasy. What would they discover
in the field of this telescope which magnified objects
48,000 times? Populations, flocks of lunar animals,
towns, lakes, and oceans? No, nothing that science
was not already acquainted with, and upon all points
of her disc the volcanic nature of the moon could be
determined with absolute precision.
But the telescope of the Rocky Mountains, before being
used by the Gun Club, rendered immense services to
astronomy. Thanks to its power of penetration,
the depths of the sky were explored to their utmost
limits, the apparent diameter of a great number of
stars could be rigorously measured, and Mr. Clarke,
of the Cambridge staff, resolved the Crab nebula in
Taurus, which Lord Rosse’s reflector had never
been able to do.
FINAL DETAILS.
