CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 109 
dear Will. Dr. Morton has got a new Species of Hippopotamus 
from Monrovia, the scull I mean, which he is going to publish. It 
is about 14 the size of the others species & differs materially in the 
teeth. It has been too cold to go about hunting guns & Powder, as 
yet, but I will do so this afternoon or tomorrow. We have had the 
coldest weather here I experienced for some long time, 8° the other 
morning. I think you had better not say any thing about the birds 
I got, to Townsend or any body else for reasons I will tell you of 
hereafter. Write as soon as you get this, and do not show it to any 
one as it is so badly written. Give my love to everybody. All well 
here. Uncles William & Ned are expected down to day. 
Yours affec— 
SPENCER F. Barirp 
On the 15th of February he left Philadelphia with his 
sister Rebecca, and went to Reading, where he visited 
relatives and made copies of articles in books not acces- 
sible at Carlisle. On the 23rd they returned to Harris- 
burg and reached Carlisle on the 24th. On the 3rd of 
February, his 21st birthday, he notes that he measured 
6 feet and 5/8 of an inch in his bare feet and weighed 
158 pounds. 
