COAST SURVEY WORK 283 



enough work to keep me busied with my hands: taking specific gravities 

 and so forth, for something like fifty days. The camp agrees with me. 

 I did a long morning's work and now feel very well. I shall try and bring 

 my observations to that point where I shall have at most one more journey 

 to make. ... Be assured I shall be home as soon as possible. 



Camp, Hoosac Mt. [no date]. 



. . . Who should turn up yesterday but Sterry Hunt? He is looking after 

 some matters for the state and is staying at North Adams. I shall go there 

 this evening to have a conference with him about some points which he is 

 more competent to consider than I am. I have the satisfaction of being able 

 to give far more than I shall receive, for he is not up in the physical questions. 

 Chauncey Wright has been here with Charles Peirce for a day or two : he will 

 take this down to you. 



Mr. Shaler often referred to this stay at the Hoosac Mountains 

 as one of the most interesting and intellectually inspiring 

 experiences of his life. To come in close contact with two such 

 broad and penetrating minds as Charles Peirce's and Chauncey 

 Wright's was a delight and stimulus to him. In the intervals 

 of their works their talk was persistent, lasting late into the 

 night and often even after they had got into bed. 



It is evident from the following letter that Mr. Shaler con- 

 tinued to be engaged during the ensuing year with other im- 

 portant works for the government. Professor Benjamin Peirce 

 (director of the Coast Survey) writes : 



CAMBBIDGE, Oct. 8th, 1875. 



... I have read and approved your profound and ingenious report upon 

 the geology of the coast, Boston to New York. But I do not profess to have 

 criticised it very minutely, for it was too difficult. Your handwriting, which 

 is nice to look at, is not easy for one to read, so I cannot make out every 

 word. . . . [The remainder of Mr. Peirce's long letter is hopelessly illegible.] 



Shaler's difficult handwriting, as we have before stated, was 

 often an annoyance as well as a source of amusement to his 

 friends, as will be seen in the letter given below : 



June 24, 1875. 



My dear Shaler: ... I presented your paper to the publishing com- 

 mittee and they considered the matter very favorably. There was but one 



