4 JOURNAL OF THE 



straits^ was in after life one of the ways in w^hich he expressed 

 his remembrance. And nearlv thirty vears after his graduation, 

 when the University was in need of funds, and its friends were 

 asked to contribute money for tlie repairs of the buihlings, 

 Professor Kerr was one of the few who remembered how much 

 it had done for him, and contributed largely for a man of his 

 limited means. And I may here mention another incident in 

 the history of his University life which illustrates the rip-id 

 honesty of the man. The sum granted annually by the Dialectic 

 Society for the support of its beneficiaries, just enough to supply 

 the necessaries of life, was always given and accepted as a free 

 and willing gift. Young Kerr found that by cutting his wood 

 and attending to his fires himself, and by practicing economy 

 in other ways, he could live on less than the amount set apart for 

 his support, and returned the surplus to the Society. The 

 only case of the kind on record, so far as I am aware. 



During the first year after his graduation, young Kerr taught 

 school at Williamston, Martin county, N. C. Shortly after this 

 he was elected to a professorship in Marshall University, Texas, 

 which he accepted; but after a brief stay there he resigned his 

 position to accept an appointment (1852) as computer in the office 

 of the Nautical Almanac, then located in Cambridge, Mass. 

 Prof Kerr's connection with the Nautical Almanac (from June, 

 1852, to January, 1857), and his consequent life at Cambridge, 

 marks an important period in his 'life. On the Almanac he was 

 principally employed in making astronomical computations, 

 computing the moon's right ascension and declination, its culmi- 

 nation over the meridian at Washington, and the lunar distances; 

 he also computed the eclipses for the year 1857. 



But this work on the Nautical Almanac, though Professor 

 Kerr's source of support (and yielding him an income more than 

 sufficient fi)r this), wjis by no means the most important feature 

 of his life in Cambridge. Here, for the first time, he was in an 

 atmosphere of active scientific work. Here he met, as instruct- 

 ors or associates, Agassiz, Pierce, Davis, Lovering, Horsford, 

 Eustis, Guvot, and many others. Here he bea^un his own work 



