62 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



was supposed, by strangers, to be my father ; and my first 

 wife has been mistaken for my mother or aunt. If I had a 

 portrait I would send you a copy of it ; some attempts have 

 been made to take my picture many years since, and the 

 map of my face may have been laid down correctly in lati 

 tude and longitude, but the expression, depending so much 

 on the state of my mind, was entirely wanting to give a 

 true character. When I was about twenty-six, a painter 

 took my likeness, with that of a particular friend, and I 

 believe it to have been correct, as far as features alone could 

 make it, but it has the look of a school-boy not satisfied 

 with his exercise. It is still in the possession of my friend 

 in Yorkshire. Neither my son Robert nor William, who is 

 about to visit America, have much of any resemblance to 

 me. The celebrated Win. Godwin, about three years since, 

 met my son William in London, and said to him, " Pray, 

 are you Mr. Bake well the father, or Mr. Bake well the son, 

 for I really cannot make out which you are ? " William, 

 my son, having dark hair, it became gray very early, which, 

 of course, made him appear older than he was. 



As the United States had the merit of first making steam 

 available successfully as a locomotive power, I have some 

 thought of sending you (if my health permit) a short essay 

 for your Journal, on what I call a railroad for thought, by 

 which people in distant regions may communicate with 

 each other with very little difficulty. 



FROM MR. BAKEWELL. 



HAMPSTEAD, March 7, 1839. 



A MAGNIFICENT geological work, full of plates, 



sections, maps, and outlines has recently been published, 

 price eight guineas and five crowns to subscribers, by Mr. 

 Murchison, a gentleman of fortune, whom next to Professor 

 Sedgwick, I consider one of our best practical geologists. 

 It is a labor of seven years. In 1811, when I announced 

 my first practical investigations of an unknown district, I 



