CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 53 



me more hereafter. He returned to Gibson about two weeks ago 

 taking Mrs. Carlton with him. The articles he brought were two 

 Horned Lizards or Agama Cornuta, a Scorpion, a Centipede, a Taran- 

 tula, and a large worm of some kind; together with a few fossils and 

 a cane of orange wood from Louisiana. The Agamas were alive and 

 one of them lived with me for several weeks, it is now, however, 

 dead and in spirits. I had a letter from Mr. Audubon the other 

 day in which he says that he is busily engaged from morning till 

 night in preparing his new work on the quadrupeds of this country, 

 and asks me to collect all the rats, bats, mice, &c. I can. Uncle 

 Penrose probably has told you of the warbler Dr. Marshall discovered 

 above Carlisle. In addition to this I have found that the limestone 

 about here is full of fossils. Ammonites a foot in diameter, Encrinites, 

 Pentacrinites, Orthoceratites, Nautili, several species of Bivalves 

 and many other sorts. The field between Adam's House and the 

 cave hill is full of them, the whole of the Limestone strata behind 

 the slate in the field being composed of coralline substances, Spirifers, 

 & Encrinites. The valves of Encrinites and Pentacrinites, stand out 

 in relief on the decomposed surfaces of the stones like the spangles 

 on an old fashioned dress. Gebler the other day sent me in a bird 

 which he had shot on the shallows below the dam, which proved to 

 be a Black Tern, Sterna Nigra, in its second plumage; it is a beautiful 

 bird. Very few woodcock were shot about Carlisle this summer, 

 Uncle William only killed half a dozen. The Field Plover are more 

 numerous than I ever saw them before. You might see sometimes 

 an hundred in a day. Every Stubble field is full of them. Partridges 

 will be pretty plenty this fall. Pheasants exceedingly so. I am 

 sorry to tell you that the owls are both dead. The old one died to 

 day. It was literally covered with millions of small insects. Looking 

 as if flour had been dusted over it. There have been several white 

 cranes in the creek this summer. I got a shot at one across the creek 

 one day with No 6 shot; of course I did not hurt it much. I borrowed 

 Steven's rifle some time ago and can now shoot pretty well. Lieu- 

 tenant West and Miss Annie Hays are to be married in September. 

 Bill Knox and Miss Harriet Duncan are also said to be engaged. 

 How do the people come on with the National Institute? and have 

 you become acquainted with any of the "fellers." Loudon's Maga- 

 zine of Natural History has come, at last; it is a pretty good thing. 



