James Craig Watson, an American astronomer, born in Middlesex (now Elgin) co., Canada West, Jan. 28,1838. His father emigrated from Northumberland co., Pa., to Canada, and thence to Michigan. He graduated at the university of Michigan in 1857, and was appointed teacher of mathematics there. In 1859 he became professor of astronomy, in 1860 of physics and of mathematics, and since 1863 he has been director of the observatory at Ann Arbor, and has had entire charge of the astronomical department. He has discovered 19 asteroids, for. which in 1870 he received the gold medal of the French academy of sciences. He went to Iowa in 1869, and to Sicily in 1870, to observe the eclipse of the sun, and in 1874 to Peking as head of the United States expedition to observe from that point the transit of Venus. Besides astronomical charts, he has published a " Popular Treatise on Comets" (Philadelphia, 1860), and " Theoretical Astronomy" (1868). He has contributed numerous papers to scientific journals.