CORRESPONDENCE. 





OTSTKB BAY, L. I., June 10, 183S. 



DEAR SIR It was with very great pleasure that I recently 

 perused the speech of Mr. Hamer, on the proposed expedition. 

 I should scarcely have expected from the West (removed as it is 

 by geographical position from the ocean) so zealous and so abl 

 an exposition of the motives which should lead our country to 

 embark in this glorious enterprise. It is, however, a gratifying 

 evidence, that although we may be occasionally influenced by 

 narrow sectional feelings, yet when it becomes a question of our 

 common country, every true-hearted patriot casts aside all petty 

 trammels, and fearlessly acts for its honour and its glory. 



To men of science, in every part of the civilized world, this 

 expedition will be hailed with intense interest. Unjustly accused, 

 as we have been, of pursuing a dollar and cent policy, it will now 

 b& seen that we have entered the list of nations in a career of 

 honourable enterprise, unconnected with pecuniary considerations. 



As an humble votary of science, I earnestly hope that the par- 

 ticular departments, which must necessarily be entrusted to citl 

 zens, will be the subject of careful and severe scrutiny, and none 

 but those every way qualified, will be selected for the task. I 

 say necessarily entrusted to citizens, for with all my respect for 

 the professional reputation of our naval officers, it is preposterous 

 to expect them to be conversant with studies entirely foreign to 

 their profession, and requiring an exclusive and unremitting atten- 

 tion for a series of years. Natural history, during the last twenty 



