1 82 The Smithsonian Institution 



wedding to come off on the banks of the Mackenzie during 

 the crisp Arctic September." 



The war of i86i-'65 broke rudely into these happy days, 

 and after it closed the old relationships were never entirely 

 resumed, although the Institution was closely related to the 

 natural history work of the early surveys of Hayden, Wheel- 

 er, King, and Powell. Many of the Polar expeditions, and 

 still earlier, the natural history survey of Alaska under the 

 direction of Kennicott and Dall, were largely under the influ- 

 ence of Professor Baird ; while later his interest in Arctic zo- 

 ology manifested itself in the pains which he took to secure 

 the appointment of naturalists as observers at the various 

 stations of the International Meteorological Service. The 

 important explorations of Nelson, Turner, and Murdoch in 

 the far Northwest, and of Kumlien and Turner in Labrador, 

 were thus provided for. 



IX. 



NATURAL history and the directing of explorations were only a 

 portion of that for which he was held officially responsible, 

 for his first duty was from the start in connection with cer- 

 tain departments of routine. The system of international 

 exchanges, for instance, was organized by him in all its de- 

 tails. His first task after entering upon his duties on Octo- 

 ber ii, 1850, was to distribute the second volume of the 

 " Contributions to Knowledge." In connection with his pri- 

 vate enterprises he had already developed a somewhat 

 extensive system of exchanges with European and Amer- 

 ican correspondents, and the methods thus established were 

 expanded to meet the wider needs of the Institution. 



He had in charge also the details of organizing the corps 

 of meteorological observers, and for twenty years wrote out 



