840 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



not easily permeable by water. It accordingly retains the moisture, 

 and is fitted to form the bed of streams Avhich never become dry. The 

 pasture-lands are diversified with woods which are wanting in the more 

 southern districts, and these give the animals shelter when they need 

 it, and furnish them with a certain amount of browse, though it be of 

 inferior quality, when the grass fails. There are other differences, 

 mostly relating to matters of detail, which have not yet been suffi- 

 ciently studied to make their bearing well understood, but all of which 

 appear to illustrate the fact that the life of the stock, its increase, and 

 its develoj^ment, depend on the complex relations of certain j^hysical 

 conditions, such as the temperature, the time and amount of rains, the 

 character of the soil, the presence or absence of wood, all of which act 

 through their influence upon the supply of pasturage and food. A 

 careful study of the media in which the cattle live and by which their 

 development is governed and their habits are regulated, the points of 

 difference between them, and the varying effects they produce in the 

 animals exposed to their influence, might result in adding another page 

 to what has been written on progressive evolution and adaptation. 

 Translated from Heviie ScieiUiJiqiie. 



-^^ 



BIOGEAPIIICAL Is^OTICE OF PEOF. C. A. YOUNG. 



AMOXG the original cultivators of astronomy who give honor 

 alike to the American name and to the science of the age, a 

 distinguished place must be assigned to Charles Augustus Young, 

 the present Professor of Astronomical Science in the College of New 

 Jersey, at Princeton. He was born at Hanover, New Hampshire, De- 

 cember 15, 1834, and may be said to have had astronomy in his blood, 

 being descended from professors of that science on both sides for two 

 generations. His father. Professor Ira Young, occupied the chair of 

 Natural Philosphy and Astronomy in Dartmouth College ; and his 

 mother's father. Professor Ebenezer Adams, held the same position in 

 that institution still earlier. He fitted for college at home, and grad- 

 uated at Dartmouth at the head of his class in 1853. 



After graduation he was for three years a teacher of classics in 

 Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. In 1856 he accepted the 

 appointment of Professor of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and 

 Astronomy in Western Reserve College at Hudson, Ohio, and the next 

 year he married Miss Augusta J. Mixer, of Concord. He remained at 

 Hudson till 1805, and during the time of his connection with the West- 

 ern Reserve College his vacations were spent in astronomical work for 

 the survey of the Western and Northwestern lakes. At the same time 

 he deviated from his peaceful college occupations into the profession of 

 war. He became a military captain, and commanded a company of 



