1850 TO 1865 329 



Extract of a Letter from S. F. Baird to Louis Agassiz?' 2 ' 



I have been in a dilemma as to how I could let you examine the 

 specimens of turtle brought home by the government expeditions 

 without incurring official risk from their commanders. All the speci- 

 mens belonging legitimately to the Institution are, as you well know, 

 freely at your service. But there is such a precision and technicality 

 in relation to the government collections, that we have to be very 

 careful in our movements. 



The following arrangement, if you agree to it, may make the 

 matter perfectly practicable. It is: for you to consent to prepare 

 a report on these collections, to appear in your own name, of course, 

 as the Chelonians, by Prof. L. Agassiz. This to consist of a descrip- 

 tion in full of all the species, with specific characters, synonymy, &c. 



2. A list of the species, with characteristics of the new ones, to 

 be published in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy, in 

 the same official way as I have published these, to be reproduced 

 with a full description in the reports of the expeditions. 



Having thus first published the species under official sanction 

 and with especial reference to the government authorities, there will 

 be no impropriety in your reproducing these same published remarks 

 in your work. There would however be a difficulty in your doing 

 (at first) more than this, as the officers would insist that the detailed 

 descriptions shall appear in their reports first, which unfortunately 

 are not likely to see the light for at least a year. 



Of these expeditions there are seven or eight entirely different 

 ones. It would be much trouble for you to prepare as many different 

 reports; the best plan will be to make out a single one for all, putting 

 each species with its specific characters on separate sheets. Send 

 this to me, and I will make the assorting by expeditions and arrange 

 the articles for publication in the proceedings of Acad. Nat. Sciences 

 under your name. 



It would be well also to present the new species of the Smithsonian 

 collection in the same way, giving the specific characters in the Pro- 



22 This is evidently a postscript to a letter to Professor Louis 

 Agassiz. The first part of the letter is not here, and consequently 

 there is no date, but it unquestionably was written in the early part 

 of January, 1856. (Note by Miss Lucy H. Baird.) 



