526 



ZOOLOGY 



Encourage- 

 ment to 

 young 

 naturalists 



Baird and 

 Mason 



who wished to visit the Peninsula of Lower California, 

 a region even less known to zoologists than that of 

 Hudson Bay. Baird knew that he could not very well 

 raise a second $500 subscription, and so he hunted 

 around for another way. He found that the United 

 States Coast Survey had planned to send a man to that 

 region to investigate the tides, for the safety of the 

 merchant vessels which passed up the Pacific Coast 

 after doubling Cape Horn. Why not send Xantus ? 

 So it was arranged, and today the name of Xantus is 

 inseparably associated with Lower Californian zoology. 



7. Devoted as he was to the Museum, Baird never 

 lost sight of the fact that it was not an end in itself; he 

 and it existed to serve the American people. So we 

 find him aiding and encouraging every budding natu- 

 ralist, every boy who might show the slightest interest 

 in science. Letters on all sorts of topics poured in upon 

 him and were always courteously answered, the infor- 

 mation desired being given whenever possible. Some 

 who afterwards became famous were thus stimulated 

 by Baird, when young and unknown. One evening a 

 week his house was thrown open to scientists, young and 

 old, and those who gathered about him became his 

 devoted friends, ready to serve him in return for the 

 kindness he had shown. In the Museum, as it came to 

 have a considerable staff of workers, Baird daily made 

 the rounds of the rooms, giving sympathy and en- 

 couragement to all. 



8. As an example of Baird's attitude toward young 

 men, we may cite a story told by Dr. O. T. Mason. 

 Long years ago, when Mason was a youth, he heard that 

 the Smithsonian had received some Semitic inscriptions 

 which had lain without being unpacked for some time, 

 nobody taking much interest in them. Mr. Mason 



