270 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 



not. He is the most notorious snake, salamander, bug, cave-bone, 

 wolf, panther and tadpole catcher in the community, your humble 

 servant perhaps excepted; having been his Lieutenant for years, 

 and companion in his various misfortunes by lake, river and moun- 

 tain. He caught most of those Julus and Passalus I sent you, besides 

 doing many other things too numerous to mention. Use him well 

 for my sake as well as his own. 



Yours truly, 



S. F, BAIRD. 



From John Wilson to Spencer F. Baird. 



CARLISLE, Nov. 18, 1851. 

 DEAR PROF. 



. . . You are anxious to hear about the bones. A week ago 

 McCauley and I made a pilgrimage to the cave in which that bone 3 

 was found last summer. It is distant from S. about 12 miles. We 

 understood the cave to be a very small one, and made no preparations 

 for very extensive explorations. After losing the way twice, we 

 finally succeeded in getting two miles beyond the place, and then 

 drove back to the veritable hole. The owner of the farm was absent, 

 and (we) found his father, a man of about 70, and an elderly maiden 

 sister in charge of matters. They are people of great simplicity 

 and were surprised that we had come all the way from S. to see the 

 cave. I went into the house and had quite a chat with the old folks, 

 but could not succeed in showing the old folks the use of hunting 

 up old bones. They declared they could not see any use in the thing- 

 there was nothing to be made at it although I talked as learnedly as 

 possible. I succeeded at least in making them believe we were some- 

 body. The cave is a vast opening nearly as large as Keefer's. 

 It differs from that, however, in being almost free from stalactitic 

 formations. The cave is formed by the openings between limestone 

 rocks in a small hill. The main cavern is about three quarters of a 

 mile in length, and there are numberless lateral openings of consider- 

 able size. We were unable to find in what part of it the famous 



3 A fossil bone about which the professor had expressed especial 

 curiosity. 



