Obituary — Professor J. D. Dana. 285 



JAMES DWIGHT DANA. 



BoEN February 12th, 1813. Died April 14th, 1895. 



The announcement of the death of this eminent geologist and 

 zoologist will be received with deep regret by the readers of tlie 

 Geological Magazine. Dana was born at Utica, New York, and 

 entered Yale College, graduating in 1833. On leaving Yale, he 

 entered the service of the United States Navy as teacher of 

 mathematics to midshipmen. In this capacity he visited on board 

 the "Delaware" and the " United States" a number of the seaports 

 of France, Italy, Greece, and Turkey, the cruise lasting fifteen 

 months. 



In 1836 he became assistant to Prof. Benjamin Silliman, the 

 mineralogist. In 1837 he published his "System of Mineralogy," 

 a work which obtained a worldwide reputation, and which ran 

 through numerous editions, of which the last was issued in 1892. 

 Dana was next appointed Geologist to the Wilkes Exploring 

 Expedition, which sailed in 1838 and returned in 1842. "The 

 expedition consisted of five ships, the route pursued being briefly 

 as follows : — First to Madeira, then to Rio Janeiro, down the coast 

 and through the Straits of Magellan, after passing which, while 

 on board the 'Eelief,' he nearly suffered shipwreck off Noir Island, 

 the ship remaining for three days and nights in extreme peril : in 

 the same storm one of the smaller accompanying vessels was lost. 

 Then to Chili, Peru, and across to the Paumotus, to Tahiti, and the 

 Navigator Islands; then to New South Wales, where the Naturalists 

 remained while Commodore Wilkes went into the Antarctic ; then 

 to New Zealand, the Fiji Islands, where two of the ofiicers were 

 murdered by the natives; to the Sandwich Islands, the Kingsmill 

 group, the Caroline Islands, and thence north to the coast of Oregon. 

 Here, near the mouth of the Columbia river, the ' Peacock,' the 

 ship to which Dana had been assigned, was wrecked, entailing 

 the loss of all his personal effects, as well as many of his collections. 

 He was, then, one of the party that crossed the mountains near 

 Mount Shasta, and made their way down the Sacramento River to 

 San Francisco. In his report of the expedition he states that the 

 geological features indicated the probable presence of gold. This 

 was six years before the discovery of gold in California, and rich 

 mines have since been discovered in the region over which the party 

 went. At San Francisco they were taken on board the 'Vincennes,' 

 and the homeward voyage was made by way of the Sandwich 

 Islands, Singa]3ore, the Cape of Good Hope, and St. Helena, 

 arriving in New York in June, 1842." As a result of his con- 

 nection with the expedition he published the Reports on Geology, 

 Crustacea, and Zoophyta, and spent in all thirteen years editing 

 and superintending the printed reports resulting fi'om these voyages. 

 In 1855 he succeeded to the Chair of Mineralogy at Yale, a position 

 he held till 1894, when he resigned. His " Manual of Geology " 

 appeared in 1863, a fourth, edition having been issued only this 



