1850 TO 1865 363 



takes charge of the Palaeontology here, and is now getting up a work 

 on the Cretaceous fossils in an entirely new style, much better adapted 

 to the use of students than any now extant. 



I see no reason why you should not with his assistance eventually 

 work up the geology of your region in such a thorough manner as to 

 have your name fully identified with it for all time. 



Your collections made with intelligence and care would enable 

 him to straighten out the whole thing in proper style. It is very 

 certain that the opinions of geologists as to the various formations in 

 the Mackenzie River Region are, in many points at least, quite wrong. 



Please call the attention of Messrs. Hardisty, Lockhart, Orion 

 and Jones, and the rest, to the importance of collecting fossils, and 

 especially to giving the localities and positions a grand locality is 

 the ramparts at Good Hope. . . . 



1863 proved a very busy year. On the 22nd of June 

 the Bairds left the city to spend the summer at Wood's 

 Hole, Mass., their first visit to the place, selected nine 

 years later as the site of the laboratories of the United 

 States Fish Commission. Here Baird seems to have had, 

 for the first time in many years, a real holiday. A little 

 collecting of birds and fishes, some necessary letter writ- 

 ing, but for the most part relaxation and rest. A month 

 later he returned alone to Washington, but was again at 

 Wood's Hole in the latter part of August, and this time 

 devoting his days with accustomed energy to collecting 

 fishes. The summer by the sea appeared to have bene- 

 fited Mrs. Baird's health, but Lucy was still delicate. 

 The Professor notes that he had gained twenty pounds 

 more than he had ever weighed before. Quite a body of 

 students were now at work in the Smithsonian laboratories. 



Elliott Coues, one of the most brilliant of them, 

 became an army surgeon and, desiring to combine orni- 

 thology with his military duties, was sent to a post in 

 New Mexico. 



