STUDIES ON THE SEA-SHORE. 579 



Fishes/' and also your notice of Carboniferous 

 fish-fauna ; but I have not yet had a chance 

 to study them critically, from want of time, 

 having been too successful with the living 

 specimens to have a moment for the fossils. 

 The season for sea-shore studies is, however, 

 drawing rapidly to an end, and then I shall 

 have more leisure for my old favorites. 



I am very sorry to hear such accounts of 

 the sufferings of the manufacturing districts 

 in England. I wish I could foretell the end 

 of our conflict ; but I do not believe it can 

 now be ended before slavery is abolished, 

 though I thought differently six months ago. 

 The most conservative men at the North have 

 gradually come to this conviction, and nobody 

 would listen for a moment to a compromise 

 with the southern slave power. Whether we 

 shall get rid of it by war measures or by 

 an emancipation proclamation, I suppose the 

 President himself does not yet know. I do 

 not think that we shall want more money than 

 the people are willing to give. Private contri- 

 butions for the comfort of the army are really 

 unbounded. I know a gentleman, not among 

 the richest in Boston, who has already con- 

 tributed over $30,000 ; and I heard yesterday 

 of a shop-boy who tendered all his earnings of 



