Word: station
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Harvard, he explains, has two stations. One is at Arequipa, eight thousand feet above the sea; the other at El Misti, nearly twenty thousand feet above the sea. In the lower station are all the valuable instruments and the headquarters of Professor Bailey, who is in charge of the astronomical work. In the upper station recording instruments of far less cost are placed, and these are visited once in each ten days by one of Professor Bailey's assistants. At such an elevation, no human being could remain and live; but the results, already obtained under the necessary conditions, have...
Professor Pickering has a letter from Professor Bailey dated September twenty-sixth which contains the statement that this upper station had been broken into, and that some of the instruments had been taken away. Such an attack must have been made by marauding Indians and, since the instruments would be valueless to them, it seems a piece of wanton mischief...
...raid has of course caused annoyance, both because of the loss of the instruments and because of the fear that similar raids will be made and thus compel the abandonment of the station. As it is the highest meteorological station in the world, such abandonment would be a heavy disaster...
...other hand, an attack on this station is of course not nearly so serious as one upon the main station at Arequipa. An attack there would mean not only that priceless instruments were in danger but that even the lives of Professor Bailey and his assistants were not safe...
Telegraphic communication is so costly as to be practically excluded. News by mail takes a month to come from Peru to Cambridge, so that it will probably be some weeks before it is definitely known whether the main station itself has been disturbed. As the whole of Peru is in an unsettled condition, being in the hands of insurrectionists, the assurance will be welcome that nothing more serious has happened than the raid on El Misti...