298 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 



ing in caverns while in search of fossil bones, embrace of Krakens 

 when catching starfish on the seas; or some other undescribed species 

 of calamity, the genus, even, of which is not yet known. The string of 

 scientific expeditions which I have succeeded in starting is perfectly 

 preposterous. Have you any idea of the activity of our navy and 

 army at the present date? Expeditions by field and flood? Well, in 

 nearly all I have a finger, and in several two hands. Let me recount: 



Capt. Ringgold sails in a week or two for the North Pacific and 

 Bering's Straits: In command of four vessels he expects to make great 

 collections of all sorts of things. Thanks to our liberal Secretary of 

 the Navy, Mr. J. P. Kennedy, I had full authority to prepare at the 

 expense of the appropriation whatever apparatus was necessary to 

 capture all sorts of Sea Devils and Water Kelpies. Getting two 

 enterprising and able naturalists appointed to the expedition, one a 

 zoologist (Mr. Stimpson), 14 the other as botanist (Charles Wright), we 

 together ransacked our brains, and made out our tremendous lists of 

 nets, kettles, dredges, etc. amounting to near $2,000, all of which were 

 authorized and paid for without flinching. They go much better pre- 

 pared than the old expedition (Wilkes) although with few hands, yet 

 will undoubtedly make good returns for the trouble invested. 



Capt. Page sailed a month ago for the Parana River and its South 

 American surroundings. Him I fixed nicely; with a small steamer, he 

 could bear but a small natural history outfit, but he got all necessary. 



Dr. Kane's second Grinnell expedition starts for Greenland the 

 middle of April. He will have about 250 dollars worth of traps, which 

 I am now getting in train. The Dr. was applied to by a committee 

 from the Phila. Academy of Natural Sciences in regard to making col- 

 lections; they suggested various articles of apparatus, the aggregate 

 somewhat bulkier than his little vessel; many of them a little more 

 complex than Babbage's calculating machine. In despair he came to 

 me, and I soon made out a list of available articles which the Secre- 

 tary approved. 



14 William Stimpson, M.D., born in Roxbury, Mass., Feb. 14, 

 1832. He was attached to the North Pacific Exploring Expedition, 

 1852, long a collaborator at the Smithsonian Institution, made Direc- 

 tor of the Chicago Academy of Sciences in 1865. He died May 26, 

 1872, leaving an enviable reputation for his work as a student of 

 invertebrate zoology. 



