Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 19.djvu/860

840 not easily permeable by water. It accordingly retains the moisture, and is fitted to form the bed of streams which never become dry. The pasture-lands are diversified with woods which are wanting in the more southern districts, and these give the animals shelter when they need it, and furnish them with a certain amount of browse, though it be of inferior quality, when the grass fails. There are other differences, mostly relating to matters of detail, which have not yet been sufficiently studied to make their bearing well understood, but all of which appear to illustrate the fact that the life of the stock, its increase, and its development, depend on the complex relations of certain physical conditions, such as the temperature, the time and amount of rains, the character of the soil, the presence or absence of wood, all of which act through their influence upon the supply of pasturage and food. A careful study of the media in which the cattle live and by which their development is governed and their habits are regulated, the points of difference between them, and the varying effects they produce in the animals exposed to their influence, might result in adding another page to what has been written on progressive evolution and adaptation.—Translated from Revue Scientifique.

 

MONG the original cultivators of astronomy who give honor alike to the American name and to the science of the age, a distinguished place must be assigned to Author:Charles Augustus Young, the present Professor of Astronomical Science in the College of New Jersey, at Princeton. He was born at Hanover, New Hampshire, December 15, 1834, and may be said to have had astronomy in his blood, being descended from professors of that science on both sides for two generations. His father. Professor Ira Young, occupied the chair of Natural PhilosphyPhilosophy [sic] and Astronomy in Dartmouth College; and his mother's father. Professor Ebenezer Adams, held the same position in that institution still earlier. He fitted for college at home, and graduated at Dartmouth at the head of his class in 1853.

After graduation he was for three years a teacher of classics in Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. In 1856 he accepted the appointment of Professor of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Astronomy in Western Reserve College at Hudson, Ohio, and the next year he married Miss Augusta J. Mixer, of Concord. He remained at Hudson till 1805, and during the time of his connection with the Western Reserve College his vacations were spent in astronomical work for the survey of the Western and Northwestern lakes. At the same time he deviated from his peaceful college occupations into the profession of war. He became a military captain, and commanded a company of 