STRAIN, Isaac G., naval officer, born in Roxbury, Pennsylvania, 4 March, 1821 ; died in Aspinwall, Colombia, 14 May, 1857. He entered the United States navy as midshipman in 1837, and was advanced to the grade of passed midshipman in 1843. While in the South Atlantic ocean in 1845 he led an exploring expedition into the interior of Brazil, and in 1848 he visited the peninsula of Lower California. In 1849 he obtained permission to leave his vessel at Valparaiso for the sake of making the overland journey to Rio Janeiro, where he rejoined his ship. The result of his experiences he gave to the public as "The Cordillera and Pampa: Sketches of a Journey in Chili and the Argentine Provinces in 1849" (New York, 1853). He was promoted lieutenant, 27 February, 1850, and was attached to the commission that in 1850 located the boundary-line between the United States and Mexico. In 1854 he had charge of the expedition to survey the Isthmus of Darien. The extremities to which his party were reduced in that affair, and the heroism with which he sustained his command under extraordinary difficulties, brought him to the notice of the public. , In the summer of 1856 he sailed in the "Arctic on her voyage to ascertain by soundings in the North Atlantic ocean the possibility of an ocean telegraphic cable between the United States and Great Britain. Lieutenant Strain was a member of the American ethnological society, and to its proceedings and those of the American geographical society he contributed interesting accounts of his expeditions, including a paper on "The History and Prospects of Interoceanic Communication" (New York, 1856). His death was the result of undue exposure while he was on the isthmus.