282 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER 



LlCHFIELD. 



... I came here yesterday to the tune of continual rain. At sundown 

 came a clearing, and by to-morrow the streams will be fordable and the roads 

 in a measure possible. I am going this morning to look for the young men 

 of my party. I shall find them within fifteen miles and shall have my business 

 done. ... If there were anything like the railroad system of England here 

 I could come home this evening and back on Monday. It is only 140 miles 

 in an air line, but it inevitably takes 18 hours to make it. So one is really no 

 better off than one would be with post horses, except as to price. Until 

 the children are old enough to look after themselves I fear we cannot go 

 about much together, but it will be a compensation for advancing years. 



MAMMOTH CAVE [no date]. 



... If I had not been alone I should have enjoyed myself very much 

 the last ten days the weather has been delightful, the sky and earth agree- 

 ing with each other. The woods are in all the tender beauty of early spring ; 

 ferns everywhere, and the perfectly dustless conditions are admirable for 

 irritable lungs ; and the cave air, uniform and clean, is so good that one even 

 bears the want of light with patience. I should feel like inventing excuses 

 to stay here and sending for you were it not that there is no milk to be had. 

 A beautiful illustration of Kentucky thrift : in the sixty years the hotel has 

 been here it has not cleared enough land for decent pasturage. Otherwise the 

 food is bearable. . . . 



In the autumn of 1874, as will be seen from the letters 

 given below, Mr. Shaler's outdoor work, chiefly for the Coast 

 Survey, was carried on in New England. 



Coast Survey Camp, Sept. 23rd, 1874. 



. . . I arrived here in good order and had a comfortable night's sleep. After 

 all I am tempted to bring you and the babies to some upper world like this, 

 and drowse away our lives in sleepy rural content or discontent, as the 

 case may be. I cannot tell how long I shall be kept here, but I shall leave 

 no stone unturned (geological joke) to get back as soon as possible. I should 

 like to move Harvard College up to this hilltop ; teaching would not be half 

 the labor. 



Coast Survey Camp, Hoosac Mountains [no date]. 



. . . Since the morning I have done two and a half miles, or one half of 

 the tunnel ; to-morrow shall do the rest. This finishes the bad leg work, the 

 remainder I can do on horseback or from a wagon. ... I shall accumulate 



