Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu/75

Rh group of American animals without finding references to the fruits of those two expeditions.

If Baird asked contributions from residents in distant parts, it was all for the sake of science, as they well know; yet he at his end did not spare himself in serving the personal needs of his correspondents. At one time we find him going out to purchase shoes for a whole family in Costa Rica; at another, Mrs. Baird's cooperation was secured in the selection of a 'lady's silk,' intended for the wife of a resident in a far northern post. It was no easy matter to select the cloth, not even knowing the color of the lady (she turned out afterwards to be a half breed), but the purchase was entirely satisfactory.

Baird only entered upon his labors at the Smithsonian in October, 1850, but a year had not passed before he received important and abundant materials from the west. The following letter to the distinguished botanist, Dr. George Engelmann, of St. Louis, Mo., is sufficiently characteristic:

2em

Dear Doctor:

The box arrived safely during my absence, and on my return a few days ago I hastened to open it. I was enchanted out and out with the perfection of the packing, and the interest of the contents, which greatly exceeded my anticipations. Much obliged to you for the trouble you had.

I am glad that you are at work for Agassiz and myself. Make a big collection, and don't spare the liquor. Remember we want everything. Keep Lindheimer spurred up [Lindheimer was a well-known botanical collector who traveled in Texas]. Shall I send him some money, and how much; also what kind passes there.

Specimens coming in rapidly. I collected many myself and have as many sent me. Let me know how I can serve you, and believe me ever yours, 2em

Then again, to the accomplished collector, Arthur Schott, then at Eagle Pass, Texas:

2em

My Dear Sir:

In a letter under date of Frontera of April 10 just received from Major Emory, he was kind enough to say that he had requested you to make some zoological collections on the Lower Rio Grande and forward them here,or at least would do so. I was much pleased to learn of the stationing so accomplished a collector as yourself in this rich region, and doubt not that you will make the position tell greatly to the advantage of natural history. You, of course, need no especial instructions in regard to the mode of collecting the objects to be gathered. In so a virgin a field as the one you are now in, everything without a single exception is desirable.

My first favorites are as you well know, vertebrata, fishes and reptiles perhaps above all, mammals and birds, however scarcely behind. . ..

On April 2, 1853, he writes to Dr. Engelmann:

I think all the western parties will go provided with naturalists. There will be a most enormous mass of matter brought in this year from the west.