CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 103 



The skins were prepared in the old-fashioned way by 

 applying to the inner side a preparation usually known as 

 "arsenical soap." This was more troublesome and took 

 longer than the later method with dry arsenic in powdered 

 form, but was very effectual as a preservative. Many 

 of the skins thus preserved are still in good condition 

 in the National Museum. The feet and bills were painted 

 with a solution of corrosive sublimate, and thus preserved 

 from museum pests. When Baird in his letters and Journal 

 speaks of "stuffing" birds, he means only that the skin 

 was preserved, as the technical term is "unmounted," 

 and not that the bird was prepared in an attitude 

 resembling life, for which the term "stuffed" is often 

 colloquially used. 



Baird also began to collect specimens of wood, and 

 notes in the Journal that in one afternoon he obtained 

 thirty kinds. He wrote to Espy, the noted meteorologist, 

 who sent him blank forms to record his observations of 

 the weather. 



From Spencer F. Baird to William M. Baird. 



CARLISLE, October 30. 1843 

 DEAR WILL, 



I would have written to you sooner had it not been that as Alick 

 was going I thought that he would tell you all the news. The ducks 

 are about here pretty plenty now. I wish you were here to shoot 

 some. I have killed several. To show you how they are & what 

 kind I will give you an account of my experience in the last eight 

 days. Last Saturday week I killed two summer ducks at a shot 

 in the marsh opposite the Pike Pond. I had gone out in the afternoon 

 merely to get specimens of wood. On Monday last I killed 4 summer 

 ducks and a green wing teal, in four shots, and wounded a sprigtail 

 & summer duck I did not get. Tuesday I went out with Uncle 

 William & Mr. Husten after Pheasants. We rode to Miner's, and 

 then went over to McClure's Gap and along the foot of the mountain 



