Obituary. 449 
of physical geography. From this time on, he seized and drained 
old book which he could find containing oat on any branch of 
physical science, be laid aside such sums of money as came into his 
ad accumulated the means of phbubadt 
on these vated” These he studied with ardor. “ Frequently,” he writes, 
“T carried books into the field when I went out to labor, to peruse while 
resting from toil ;—some shady tree serving as my school room, and a 
few moments of study serving to give me a subject for frequent rehearsals 
ply) an hour’s toil.” 
At the age of twenty, he a managed to collect a number of scientific 
and classical works and had thus become familiar with the elements of 
physics and cheniistey—iniaking’ 5 such apparatus as the materials at 
hand would permit, grinding and polishing small lenses and constructin 
prisms for experiments on fluid media. He had also taught himself 
Latin enough to ena with some ease, and had become familiar with 
algebra, geometry and trigonometry. At this period he went to the 
newly opened territory of Minnesota to seek his fortune in the far West; 
but after a little more than a year he returned be ae native place, wi 
health much impaired by the FiftGeinbb of that climate. 
His first publication of which I am aware was a s pal entitled, “ Ob- 
servations on Thunder and Lightning” printed in the Appendix to the 
Tenth (1855) Annual Report of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion. In this he gave an interesting series of results of observations of 
sixteen thunder-storms during the years 1850-4 at Weld, and at Stillwater 
Minn.) For each of these storms he had noted the character and the 
intervals of phase for the different thunder-peals,—and to these observa- 
m 
the 156 cases when not so preceded. e ming ay interval which he 
had recorded between the flash and report was 15; the maximum, 56%. 
A very full account is given of a severe bral da 1854, June 15; 
and an authentic instance is afforded of the occurrence of thunder in a 
cloudless eee he succeeded in tracing to its origin in a storm 
low the eastern hor 
r, Masterman taboeguen tly became a frequent contributor to this 
and other scientific journals. Without instruments, he devoted himself 
earnestly ‘inl faithfully to the observation of such celestial cack as 
could be sufficiently noted by the naked eye, and his observations of 
maxima and minima of variable stars as well as of oe zodiacal ee 
ade under similar circumstances. Among his  aetiige 
‘Smithsonian ig sane 1855, pp. 265-282 ; 1857, 323-332. 
Amer. — of Science, [2], xxx, 155; xxxv, 149, 50; xxxvi 143-5. 
Astron rnal, v, 31, 37, 105, 140, 191; vi, 38, 44, 47, 83, 85, 
96, 183, 18 
During the last two years, until his failing health compelled him 
desist from all labor, Mr. Masterman was engaged upon the reduction of 
observations made at the Washington Observatory during the fifteen 
