CORRESPONDENCE 153 



Clifton Springs he was devoted to his correspondents and 

 many were the letters he sent them, detailing the incidents 

 of his trips, telling them what he had seen and inquiring 

 for their well-being. In one instance he wrote a long 

 letter to Prof. Baird while remaining in the railway station 

 at Boston, waiting for a train. It was on December 18, 

 1875 and was in reference to obtaining a pair of moose 

 for the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia. He loved 

 to remember his friends and was most happy to answer 

 their inquiries or do them a favor. Moreover his letters 

 were always familiar and interesting. He had the happy 

 gift of saying pleasant things and writing about common 

 experiences and observations in a most entertaining way, 

 especially when writing to his most intimate friends. 



Systematic and careful as he was in all his business 

 methods, Mr. Boardman retained the letters that were 

 addressed to him and always filed them in the most 

 orderly manner. Between three and four hundred letters 

 addressed to him by his scientific correspondents and 

 friends have been examined in the preparation of this 

 memoir. 



It has been diflScult, however, except in few instances, 

 to obtain many of Mr. Boardman' s own letters. Those 

 to Prof. Spencer F. Baird of the Smithsonian Institution; 

 to Dr. William Wood of East Windsor Hill, Conn., to 

 Robert Ridgway of the Smithsonion Institution, to Mr. 

 J. A. Allen of the American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory, New York, and to Mr. Charles Hallock of Jersey 

 City, N. J., have, however, most fortunately, been 

 obtained and made use of. A list of the naturalists with 

 whom he was in correspondence and whose letters were 

 preserved by Mr. Boardman other than those just named, 



