340 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 



From Louis Agassiz to Spencer F. Baird. 



CAMBRIDGE, 4th March, 1861. 

 MY DEAR BAIRD: 



The bill granting $20,000 to the Museum (at Cambridge) has 

 passed the Legislature, so that I can now move freely. How many 

 days may pass before I can draw the money I do not exactly know, 

 but I trust it will be in time to forward my subscription to Kennicott 

 and to your egg man on Lake Winnipeg. The Boston Society of 

 Natural History has also been successful in its application for a 

 reservation of land on the Back Bay grounds. It will be our fault 

 if hereafter Zoology is not making progress in this part of the country. 

 But if we would do the most that may be done without means, we 

 should all come to an understanding in order not to attempt the 

 same thing and thus waste our resources in producing the same results 

 over and over again, instead of advancing each in a special direction. 

 Wyman, with whom I had a conference on that subject, fully approves 

 this suggestion and I wish I could come to a similar understanding 

 with you. In this way, the collections of each of our institutions 

 would have a distinct character and all would be equally valuable 

 and important in their specialty. If you approve of such a plan, let 

 me know what is to be your policy and your aim, that I may co- 

 operate to the limits of my ability. As for myself, I propose to pursue 

 chiefly two series of investigations with reference to which all the 

 collections in the Museum here will be arranged. 1st. To represent 

 the correspondence in the order of succession of past geological 

 periods and the relative standing of rank of the animals now living, 

 and, as far as possible, also their embryonic growth. 2nd. To make 

 faunal collections illustrating the mode of association and geographical 

 distribution of animals upon the whole surface of the globe. 



I do not propose to make a general systematic collection of any 

 one class of the animal kingdom embracing in a methodical order 

 all the species known of the class, so that, when arranged as I propose 

 to arrange them, our Museum will in no way resemble those which 

 exist now. I am not apprehensive of interfering with anybody or of 

 being interfered with; but I should like to know what you propose 

 that I may co-operate with you. 



You can help me best now in aiding me to make local collections 



