EDWARD DRINKER COPE 317 



investigator than to the five or six years of formal education which 

 he received at school." 



Thus the boy grew to manhood, and of his appearance at that 

 time Doctor Gill describes him as: 



"A young man, nineteen years old, about 5 feet 9 or 10 inches 

 high, with head carried somewhat backwards and of rather ro- 

 bust frame, stood before me; he had an alert, energetic manner, 

 a pronounced, positive voice, and appeared to be well able to take 

 his part in any trouble. His knowledge was by no means con- 

 fined to herpetology, but covered a wide range of science, and his 

 preliminary education had been good." 



In 1859, he visited Washington and joined the group of young 

 naturalists who were associated together in the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution under Professor Baird. Their names are best recalled by the 

 following stanza, improvised by one of their number, after a hotly 

 contested argument on some disputed point in natural history: 



"Into this well of learning dip with spoon of Wood or Horn, 

 For students Meek and holy silver spoons should treat with scorn. 



"If Gabb should have the gift of Gill 



As Gill has gift of Gabb, 

 'Twould show a want of judgment still 

 To try to Cope with Meek." 



In Washington he found not only congenial associates but also 

 a place of abode, and he tells in a letter of how he "located on the 

 sixpenny side of Pennsylvania Avenue near Sixth St." at $25 

 a month. 



Later, on February i, 1861, he writes: 



"I have come to the conclusion that Washington is decidedly 

 a second-rate place. Though there are two professors and a doc- 

 tor in the boarding house, they are all unsatisfactory trifling 

 people." 



Of his associates he says: 



"Two fairer men than Profs. Henry and Baird are, however, 



