Da'na, Francis

an American jurist, B. 1743, at Charles town, Ma ., graduated at Harvard College in 1762, and was admitted to the bar in 1767. Early in 1775 he sailed for Europe, charged with confidential letters to Dr. Franklin on the critical state of affairs, by the elder Quincy, Warren, and other American patriots. In 1776 he returned, and reported to Gen. Washington, whom he a ured that the colonies had nothing to expect from Great Britain. D. was now elected by the Ma achusetts A embly a member of the Executive Council, and in 1777 a member of the Congre which formed the Confederation. From that time to the close of the war he occupied various offices of trust, and, in 1781, he was appointed American minister to Ru ia. After his return, he was again elected a member of Congre , and in 1786 he went as a delegate to the Anna polis convention. In Nov., 1791, he was appointed chief-justice of Ma . for a term of 15 years. After the expiration of this term, he kept almost entirely aloof from politics. During his long public life he was highly esteemed, by his political opponents no le than by his personal and party friends. As a judge, he frowned upon all manner of chicane and low quibbling, and won golden opinions by his strict impartiality, his great learning, and calm dignity. D. 1811. Da'na, JAMES DWIGHT, LL.D., an American naturalist, born at Utica, N. Y., Feb. 12, 1813, graduated at Yale College, 1833, where the elder Silliman had been his teacher of mathematics and natural sciences. After leaving college he was appointed teacher of mathematics to the midshipmen in the U. S. Navy. In this capacity he embarked in the ship-of-the-line Delaware for the Mediterranean. After his return, in 1835, he acted as a istant to Prof. Silliman at Yale College until 1838, when he joined an expedition sent out by the U. S. government for the exploration of the Southern and Pacific oceans. This squadron, under Com. Wilkes, sailed in 1838, returning home in 1842. Mr. D. now set to work preparing the various reports of this expedition for publication, not neglecting, in the meantime, other scientific labors. His first publication with regard to the observations he had made in Com. Wilkes' expedition, was a Report on Zoophytes (1846, Washington, 740 pp. 4to, with an atlas), containing a new cla ification of the whole department of the polyps. Next he i ued his Report on the Geology of the Pacific (1849, Washington, 756 pp. 4to, with an atlas). Then came a Report on Crustacea (1852-4, Washington, 1,620 pp. 4to, with an atlas). In 1845 D. married the daughter of his teacher and friend, Profe or Silliman, and afterward resided at New Haven. On the resignation of Prof. Silliman, D. was appointed profe or of natural history and geology in Yale College. Besides the above named reports, he published his System of Mineralogy, which first appeared in 1837, and has since gone through several editions, being considered a work of authority in both Europe and America. For many years D. was the editor of the American Journal of Science, and published, in 1862, a Manual of Geology, which is one of the most valuable works on the subject. He wrote also Coral Reefs and Islands, and was a member of many learned societies in America and Europe. Died April 14, 1895. Dana. RICHARD HENRY, an American poet and e ayist, Β. Νοv. 15, 1787, at Cambridge, Ma . He was educated at Harvard College, and devoted himself to the study of the law, but soon abandoned this pursuit and applied himself to literature. His first poem was The Dying Raven, followed by The Buccaneer and other Poems, 1827. He also wrote numerous tales and e ays, which are characterized by a terse and vigorous style, and by sound, practical reflections. D. Feb. 2, 1879. Dana. JAMES FREEMAN, an American chemist, B. in N. H., 1793. In 1819, he was appointed Profe or of Chemistry at Dart mouth Coll., and, in 1825, to a similar position in the New York Coll. of Physicians. He was author (conjointly with his brother, Dr. S. L. Dana) of a work on the Mineralogy and Geology of Boston and its Vicinity. D. 1827.