178 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 



I think the inducements for the proposed change very strong. You 

 would be transferred to a novus orbis in the realm of Nature and 

 brought into contact with a social circle not superior, perhaps, to 

 that with which you are conversant at Carlisle, but so differently 

 constituted as to excite new sympathies and to bring new powers 

 into action. A residence of a few years, therefore, in Burlington 

 would be attended with advantages which might probably counter- 

 balance the objections, and it is possible that when our Rail Roads 

 are completed we may find such favor in Boston as to secure a more 

 liberal endowment; in which case we should be liberally disposed 

 to you and to your department. . . . 



Yours very truly 



GEORGE P. MARSH. 



Baird's reply is not available but, from subsequent 

 correspondence, was in the negative. 



Under date of February 8, 1848, we have the note 

 in his Journal of the birth of a daughter, Lucy Hunter 

 Baird. The boyish glee, which lay so close under his 

 usual serene or serious demeanor, comes to the surface 

 in a thumbnail silhouette in the Journal, showing two 

 dancing parents, each holding by one hand an infant 

 between them. He was very sleepy, having been up all 

 night; nevertheless he prepared a fish skeleton in the 

 evening. 



From George P. Marsh to S. F. Baird. 



WASHINGTON, Feb. 14, 1848. 

 DEAR BAIRD, 



. . . I should have been much gratified if you had arrived at a 

 different conclusion in respect to moving to Burlington, but I did not 

 think that I could conscientiously advise such a step, however pleasing 

 it would have been to me to have had you for a neighbor. . 



During this month Baird began the exploration of a 

 large cave on the bank of the creek northwest of the 



