1 66 The Smithsoniaji htstitiition 



field exploration as an essential part of instruction in natural 

 history. Doctor Moncure D. Conway, one of his pupils, has 

 often spoken to me of his fascinating explanations of natural 

 phenomena, and how the contagion of his enthusiasm spread 

 among his pupils, who frequently followed him over the hills 

 twenty or thirty miles a day. Once, while collecting insects In 

 the field, they were surrounded and captured by a party of 

 German farmers, who thought they were escaped lunatics 

 and proposed to take them to an asylum. 



IV. 



His mentor at this time was the Honorable George P. Marsh, 

 of Vermont, who was always his friend and admirer, and to 

 him Professor Baird always felt that he owed his real start in 

 life. Mr. Marsh, feeling that his protege was disposed to 

 bury himself in the technicalities of a specialty, insisted that 

 he should undertake to translate and edit an edition of the 

 ** Iconographic Cyclopaedia," a version of Heck's " Bilder- 

 Atlas," published in connection with the famous " Konversa- 

 tions-Lexikon " of Brockhaus. This, his first extensive liter- 

 ary task, though exceedingly laborious and confining to a 

 man so young and entirely untrained in literary methods, 

 was efficiently and rapidly performed. The result was a 

 great expansion in his tastes and sympathies, while the train- 

 ing and confidence which he acquired served as an excellent 

 preparation for the tremendous literary tasks which he un- 

 dertook without hesitation in later years. 



It was also to Mr. Marsh, who was one of the earliest 

 Smithsonian Regents, that he owed his election as Assistant 

 Secretary of the Institution, then recently organized. His 

 selection, as is indicated by a statement in Professor Henry's 

 fifth report, was due quite as much to his training in editorial 



