Science: Grandfather of the Snow

Dr. James Edward Church is a blue-eyed, twinkling man of 82 who looks like a rather hardy retired professor of Greek. That is just what he is, but he is better known as "the father of the snow survey" -the rough and rugged practical science of measuring the snowpack on high mountains.

In 1892 Dr. Church came to Reno to teach Latin and Greek at the University of Nevada. The classics were all right in their way, but the young professor felt the need of something more robust. One winter, on a dare, he set out to climb the 10,800-ft. peak of...