Nature is notoriously partial in her distribution of this valuable element over the earth. A region having an average annual rainfall of less than ten inches is normally a desert, though irrigation or "dry-farming" methods may enable its inhabitants to practice agriculture. The heaviest average annual rainfall in the United States (not including Alaska) is about 136 inches, in Tillamook County, Oregon. The rainiest meteorological station in the world is Cherrapunji, India, with an average of about 426 inches per annum.[B] [B] This is the latest official record. There are several rain-gauges at Cherrapunji, and the average amount of rain collected by any one of them varies considerably with the length of the record. Hence the widely divergent values of the rainfall at this famous station published in encyclopædias and other reference books. [Illustration: THE OBSERVATORY ON MONTE ROSA] THE OUTPOSTS OF METEOROLOGY Monograph Number Four in The Mentor Reading Course The expression used in our title seems a fitting one to apply to a number of meteorological observatories and stations maintained for the benefit of science in regions remote from the comforts and conveniences of civilization. Some are on the summits of lofty mountains, the ascent of which is laborious and even perilous. Others are situated in the bleak wildernesses of the circumpolar zones. Public attention has all too rarely been called to the heroism and self-sacrifice of the men who constitute the staffs of these lonely outposts. The institution shown in our gravure--officially known, in honor of the Dowager Queen of Italy, as the Regina Margherita Observatory--crowns the summit of Monte Rosa, on the northern Italian frontier, and is 14,960 feet above sea-level. It is devoted not only to meteorological investigations, but to studies of the physiological effects of great altitudes and various other researches, and is open to the _savants_ of all nationalities who are courageous enough to scale the second highest summit of the Alps. It is habitable for only about two months; viz., from the middle of July to the middle of September. Each year a temporary telephone line is constructed connecting the observatory with the plains of Italy. This is the highest telephone line in the world, and its installation is an arduous undertaking. A permanent line is impossible, on account of the shifting of the glaciers and snowfields on which the poles must be erected.