b. November 19, 1805 and d. December 8, 1894

French engineer of the Suez Canal, which was inaugurated November 17, 1869. The canal for steamboats of light draught was opened on August 15, 1865. Since 1873 he concentrated his energy on the Pamana Canal. The scandal attending the exposure of the Pamana Canal mismanagement is supposed to have hastened his death.

 Where the demands for competent ability are so
 pressing and the temptations to employ that ability
 in such occupations as bring them instant rewards
 are so great, it is quite certain that but few will be
 found inclined to spend their lives in studies which
 have no interest for others, and no perceptible bearing
 on private or public good.

 1847, July 8—The canal from Durana to Marseilles was completed.

 1854—The Ganges Canal in India was opened.

 1859—The construction of the Suez Canal was begun.

 1861—The canal of Languedoc (Canal du Midi), connecting the Atlantic with the Mediterranean, 148 miles long, was completed.

 1864—The Suez Canal was completed.

 1865—A canal was dug connecting Amsterdam with the North Sea. (1876, November 1, opened.)

 1869, November 23—The Suez Canal was formally opened to the commerce of the world in the presence of the Emperor of Austria, the Empress of France and the Khedive of Egypt.

b. ? 1765 and d. November 18, 1854

British officer. About 1808 he invented a mode of saving life by shooting from a mortar a rope to mariners shipwrecked near the coast.

 Mournful wave! I deemed thy song
 Was telling of a mournful prison,
 Which, when tempests swept along,
 And the mighty winds were risen,
 Foundered in the ocean’s grasp,
 While the brave and fair were dying.
 Wave! didst mark a white hand clasp
 In thy folds as thou wert flying?

 —A Dying Wave: Anonymous

 Throw out the Life-line across the dark wave,
 There is a brother whom some one should save;
 Somebody’s brother! oh, who then will dare
 To throw out the Life-line, his peril to share?

 Throw out the Life-line with hand quick and strong;
 Why do you tarry, my brother, so long?
 See! he is sinking; oh, hasten to-day-
 And out with the Life-boat! away, then, away.

 —E. S. Ufford

 1802—Life-boats first invented.

 1819, June 20—First American steamer at Liverpool was launched.

 1821—First seagoing steam vessel, made of iron, was constructed in England.

 1880—First iron steamship was built in the United States.

b. November 18, 1810 and d. ?

American inventor. From 1842-1873 he was Professor at Harvard. With Dr. John Torrey, he classified species on the natural basis of affinity. In 1874 he was Regent of the Smithsonian Institute. From 1863-’73 he was President of the Amer. Acad. of Arts and Sciences, and in 1872 of the Amer. Assn. for the Adv. of Science.

 Lo! on each seed, within its slender rind,
 Life’s golden threads in endless circles wind;
 Maze within maze the lucid webs are rolled,
 And as they burst, the living flame unfold.
 The pulply acorn, ere it swells, contains
 The oak’s vast branches in its milky veins,
 Each raveled bud, fine film, and fiber-line,
 Traced with nine pencil on the small design,
 The young Narcissus, in its bulb compressed,
 Cradles a second nestling on its breast,
 In whose fine arms a younger embryo lies,
 Folds its thin leaves, and shuts its floret-eyes;
 Grain within grain, successive harvests dwell,
 And boundless forests slumber in a shell.

 See’st thou yon fern and tree, the herb, the flower,
 Have they not life as thine, and health and power?
 Do they not breathe, and eat, and drink, to be?
 Something they have in common, man, with thee.
 Watch their emotion when the cold north wind
 Blows on the flowers; do they not try to find
 Some shelter ‘neath their leaves? Then bow their heads
 Away from hurting winds. But if instead
 Of cold the beneficent sun should shine,
 How glad all nature grows!

 —John P. Morris