OF ARTS AND SCIENCES : MAY 24, 1864. 301 



resources, and a predisposition to social occupations rather than to 

 severe studies, prevented him from employing to their fullest extent 

 his powers as a mathematician and astronomer. 



Beside his regular contributions to the publications of the Naval 

 Observatory, he communicated from time to time the following papers 

 to Gould's Astronomical Journal : " On the Orbit of the Great Comet 

 of 1843," Vol. II., 1852 ; " Determination of the Orbit of Egeria," Vols. 

 11. and III., 1854 ; " On the Orbit of Biela's Comet," Vols. III. and IV., 

 1856 ; " Correction of Logarithms of A, B, C, and D in the Tabulae 

 Regiomontanie," Vol. IV., 1856. The articles in Appleton's American 

 Encycloptedia on the Telescope and on the Transit-Circle are also from 

 his pen. 



Edward Bissell Hunt, a distinguished officer of the United 

 States Engineers, and a most promising man of science, was born at 

 Portage, Livingston County, New York, June 15, 1822. He entered 

 West Point in 1841, and was graduated June 30, 1845, standing second 

 in his class. The next day he was appointed Brevet Second Lieutenant 

 in the Corps of Engineers, and commissioned Second Lieutenant at the 

 close of that year. On the 28th of August, 1846, he was appointed 

 Acting Assistant Professor of Engineering in West Point, and he held 

 that office for three years. Afterwards he was employed on several 

 important foiiifications, at Newport, New Haven, New London, &c. 

 He rose by successive promotions to the rank of Major in the Corps of 

 Engineers. At the outbreak of the rebellion he was engaged upon 

 Fort Taylor, at Key West, which will ever stand as an enduring monu- 

 ment of his professional and scientific skill, and^which was saved by 

 his energy and sagacity from falling into the hands of the rebels. From 

 1851 to 1857, while stationed on the New England coast, in the ser- 

 vice of the Corps of Engineers and the Light House Board, he also 

 rendered large services to the Coast Survey, and through that work to 

 the general cause of physical science. 



He died on the 2d of October, 1863, while experimenting near 

 Brooklyn Navy Yard upon his own invention for piercing the armor 

 of iron-plated ships. Through some accident, the gun-room was filled 

 with the gases from a burning shell, and upon his entering it by a 

 ladder, he was suffocated before effectual help could be rendered. 



Major Hunt's personal appearance corresponded to the character of 

 his mind : a noble strength and dii-ectness of address, great modesty 



VOL. VI. 31 



