JAMES DWIGHT DANA 235 



though their friendship and helpful mutual influence certainly 

 commenced early in life. 



In 1830, Dana entered the Sophomore Class of Yale College, 

 and he was duly graduated from that institution in 1833. His 

 standing in general scholarship was creditable though not brilliant. 

 Those were the days of the fixed curriculum in which the staples 

 were classics and mathematics. Dana's preparation in the classics 

 had been defective, and in college he did not distinguish him- 

 self in that department. He attained, however, a high grade in 

 mathematics; and it is needless to say that he made the most of 

 the rather scanty opportunities which an American college then 

 afforded for the study of the sciences of nature. Undoubtedly the 

 strongest influence in his college life towards the shaping of his 

 future career was that of the elder Benjamin Silliman, whose 

 pioneer work in chemistry and geology was already giving renown 

 to Yale College. 



In the spring of 1833, Dana received an appointment as school- 

 master in the navy. He was ordered to report June 15, at Nor- 

 folk, Virginia, for service on the U. S. ship Delaware, in a cruise 

 in the Mediterranean. The school for the instruction of midship- 

 men on the ship was presided over by the chaplain. Dana's 

 work was that of instructor in mathematics. The routine duties 

 of his position left him much leisure, and he devoted a large por- 

 tion of his time to the study of crystallography. He had oppor- 

 tunities for observation of the geology of various localities on the 

 Mediterranean shores. The earliest of his long series of scientific 

 publications was a letter to Professor Silliman, describing Vesuvius 

 as it appeared in July, 1834, which was published in the American 

 Journal of Science in the following year. He returned to this 

 country near the end of the year 1834, and retired from the naval 

 service. 



The return from the Mediterranean cruise was the beginning 

 of a period of perplexity. Already young Dana clearly heard the 

 inward call to a distinctively scientific career, but in those days 

 the opportunities to secure a livelihood in such a career were far 

 less abundant than at present. A great encouragement to the 



