CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. MANTELL. 185 



years of Captain Sebor, as stated to me by himself. (The 

 first English steamer, the Sirius, a small experimental 

 ship, arrived in New York in April, 1838.) I had no reason 

 to expect an early reply from Dr. Mantell ; but my letter 

 to him had been gone only a few days, when the desired 

 books arrived. 



The fact that each of us had taken the initiative step, 

 each without knowing what the other was doing, this 

 happy movement on the part of men of temperament not 

 dissimilar and not cold, brought us together in genial sym- 

 pathy. The offices of kindness and useful service which 

 began from the first overture, and never ceased until death 

 closed our intercourse, soon ripened into a warm friend- 

 ship and cordial confidence and esteem ; and, considering 

 that we were already, and myself especially, in the evening 

 twilight of life, our correspondence was not only confid- 

 ing, it was affectionate. I was fifty-two, and Dr. Mantell 

 forty-one, when the correspondence began. His first letter 

 to me is dated March 29, 1831, and the last, October 11, 

 1852 ; and he died November 10, 1852, just one month 

 intervening. Dr. Mantell's letters were not only most 

 friendly and confiding, they were full of information, and 

 were often accompanied by valuable specimens, which 

 gradually accumulated to form a large and valuable collec- 

 tion. In his letters he gave me from time to time the most 

 recent and most important scientific intelligence, which was 

 usually inserted in the " Journal of Science," whose pages 

 were occasionally enriched by original communications 

 from his own pen. 



There are one hundred and twenty-six letters of Dr. 

 Mantell, in regular sequence of dates, from March 29, 

 1831, to October 11, 1852, a period of twenty years and a 

 half, making about six letters a year.* My letters were, 



* Besides these, a considerable number of letters from Dr. Mantell have 

 been found among Mr. Silliman's papers, which had escaped his eye when 

 he made the collection. F. 



