THE YOUNG PROFESSOR 179 



town. It proved unexpectedly rich in bones of Pleistocene 

 animals. Some minute albino Crustacea were found, and 

 a multitude of bats. 



Several later visits were made and, with the help of 

 the students, every crevice was explored and large addi- 

 tions of fossil bones added to the first lot obtained. 

 Among them were those of the horse, the beaver, deer 

 and some carnivora. 



In March Mrs. Churchill moved into a house next 

 door which involved quite an upheaval of Baird's study 

 in making the change. For some time he, with the assist- 

 ance of some of his pupils, was energetically devoted to 

 the capture of salamanders, and records collecting one 

 hundred specimens in one afternoon in addition to frogs, 

 toads and snakes. 



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



WASHINGTON April 18, 1848. 

 DEAR BAIRD, 



I give you joy of your Salamanders, first because they are nasty 

 creatures that nobody will steal, and secondly, because they are so 

 incombustible (if you doubt, read Benvenuto Cellini) that when 

 some envious rival naturalist sets your museum on fire, they will 

 escape unscathed. In them, therefore, you have an abiding treasure, 

 and I trust your salamandrian and protean heads (which we learn 

 from Horace, omne cum proteus, &c., was some years since driven out 

 to pasture in the Alleghenies and Adirondacks) will multiply until 

 they shall be as the sand of the seashore. 



I will see the man with the hard name, who chiefly affecteth 

 malacology, and propound in your behalf a swap between old Europe 

 and young America. There is also a Thuringian who looks like an 

 American but is none as the poet sings: 



Thuringens Berge, zum Exampel, geben 

 Gewachs, sieht aus wie Wein, 

 Ist's aber nicht; 



