THEODOBE NICHOLAS GILL — DALL. 581 



entered into correspondence with Gill and promoted his studies. A 

 report on the fishes of New York which Gill had in preparation was 

 accepted for publication in the annual report of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution when its author was only 19 years old. 



Mr. D. Jackson Stewart in the interest of his collection financed 

 an expedition to the West Indies and in December, 1857, Gill made 

 his first visit to Washington and to the Smithsonian better to pre- 

 pare himself for the undertaking. Here he made the personal ac- 

 quaintance of Profs. Henry, Baird, and others whom he had known 

 previously only by correspondence. 



Gill sailed in January, 1858, on a large schooner, with a pleasant 

 group of passengers. 



He visited several of the Antilles, and especially Barbados and 

 Trinidad, where he spent some weeks, being cordially assisted by 

 many of the residents. Finding the marine fishes much the same at 

 all the islands visited, he confined his attention especially to the 

 peculiar fresh-water fishes of Trinidad with very satisfactory results. 



After his return he devoted himself to working up this collection. 

 He went to Washington in August, 1858, for this purpose, and stayed 

 for several months with Stimpson. He also spent much time in Phila- 

 delphia, and his report with several subsequent papers was published 

 in the Annals of the New York Lyceum of Natural History, the 

 predecessor of the present New York Academy of Sciences. 



In 1859 the death of his grandfather in Newfoundland made neces- 

 sary a visit to that country in connection with the settlement of the 

 estate. Gill improved the opportunity by studying the fauna of 

 that remote region. 



On his return, through Prof. Baird's intervention, he obtained an 

 appointment with a group of workers to whom was assigned the task 

 of reporting on the collections made during the Northwest Boundary 

 Survey under Archibald Campbell. Among these wei-e George Gibbs, 

 the ethnologist, Prof. William Turner, Dr. Stimpson, and Dr. George 

 Suckley. Dr. Caleb Kennerly, the zoologist of the expedition, had 

 died at sea on liis way home from the Pacific coast. 



During this period Gill lived at the Rugby House (now the Ham- 

 ilton House), where he did a large part of his work. Unfortunately, 

 owing to the breaking out of the Civil War, the reports on the work 

 of the commission were left mostly unpublished, Gill's among them, 

 though some of his preliminary data appeared in the Proceedings of 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia. 



Among those who were working at the Smithsonian in 1861 were 

 F. B. Meek, the paleontologist ; Thomas Egleston, afterwards pro- 

 fessor of mineralogy in Columbia University; Dr. F. V. Hayden, the 

 geologist; Robert Kennicott, the explorer; Prof. Matile, one of 

 Agassiz's Swiss coadjutors in physics and at that time an assistant 

 73839°— SM 1916 38 



