276 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 



I am getting very sleepy, don't you perceive it and must stop 

 and say goodbye. When are you coming home? We miss you day 

 and night. I shan't be sorry when some new President turns you out 

 of office. 



From Spencer F. Baird to John H. Clark, Frontera, Texas. 



WASHINGTON, May 14, 1852. 

 MY DEAR ADAM: 6 



Your letter of April 8th came two days ago, but as I knew that the 

 last invoice of reptiles and fishes, collected under Col. Graham's 

 administration was somewhere between this and New York, I con- 

 cluded to wait a while. This afternoon the Col. came over with the 

 case, which Mr. Girard and I quickly opened in his presence, and as you 

 may well suppose, with as little delay as possible. The liquor had 

 leaked out of the kettle, but thanks to the admirable manner in which 

 the specimens were put up, everything was in perfect order, as perfect 

 as the other two lots, which is saying a great deal. I am afraid Girard 

 will go into a fever with the excitement of seeing the many new things 

 and I am not much behind him in this. A very few species were sent 

 by you before, or at least we had them from some source, the great 

 majority, however, are entirely new. One of these days, when the 

 results of the expedition are published, people will be astonished to 

 find how much one man can do under difficulties. It all depends on 

 training, don't it? No American Naturalist has ever added so many 

 species of reptiles and fishes to our fauna in a period even of years, as 

 you have. But I can't find the lizard with bat-like wings. Is it the 

 one with the groove along the sides, from the "Coppermines." This 

 is a new species of the genus Elgaria, and belongs to the Pacific Fauna. 

 What a pile of new snakes you have collected. I should not be sur- 

 prised if the entire number of species caught by you should amount to 

 40, and most of them new. The fish are of high interest, entirely dif- 

 ferent from the earlier lot. Among them I see Major Emory's Gila 

 Trout, or rather a second species of the same genus. It is not really a 

 trout, but probably has habits of one. 



6 This was Clark's college nickname, referring to his facility 

 with mathematics and to Adam Clark the eminent mathematician. 



