Mat 21, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



747 



and was not unacquainted with, some of the 

 lighter literature of the day. He read 

 with zest, as many of us did, Rider Hag- 

 gard's "King Solomon's Mines," and was 

 so much interested in Mrs. Burnett's 

 "Little Lord Fauntleroy," which came out 

 in serial form in St. Nicholas, to which he 

 was a subscriber, that he asked the au- 

 thor's husband whether the story had been 

 completed, or whether Mrs. Burnett was 

 supplying copy to the magazine month by 

 month. He was much relieved when told 

 that the manuscript for the entire story had 

 been given to the publishers, since he could 

 now go on with the reading without fearing 

 that some calamity might happen to the au- 

 thor that would prevent her finishing the 

 story. He gave the impression of being one 

 who had succeeded in establishing entire 

 control over himself. I never saw him 

 roused out of his habitual serenity but once. 

 That was when a collecting expedition for 

 a special purpose was being delayed in its 

 starting because the commander of the 

 Lookout wanted to finish a game of tennis 

 he was playing on the grounds near the 

 Dexter House. ( The Lookout was a steam- 

 yacht used by Major Ferguson, the assist- 

 ant commissioner.) "When it was reported 

 to Professor Baird that the expedition was 

 being delayed he left his office and walked 

 at a very rapid pace down toward the lab- 

 oratory on Little Harbor. The commander 

 of the Lookout, sighting Professor Baird 

 bearing down upon him under full steam, 

 abruptly suspended his game and a few 

 minutes later the Lookout was under way. 

 Professor Baird 's knowledge of living 

 things, especially of fishes and birds, was 

 extensive, exact and detailed. He belonged 

 to the older school of naturalists whose 

 view of nature was bounded by no narrow 

 horizon. Unfortunately for him and for 

 science his later years were encumbered by 

 administrative details which, although he 

 attended to them apparently without 



worry, were often perplexing, always time- 

 consuming, and grew in volume with the 

 years. As secretary of the Smithsonian 

 Institution and as commissioner of fish and 

 fisheries his administrative burdens were 

 very great. His nature was such that he 

 could not easily shift burdens to other 

 shoulders. As a consequence of all this he 

 suffered the penalties that follow long hours 

 at his desk substituted for a life that had 

 been formerly in good part spent in the 

 open. 



In the interval between the summers of 

 1886 and 1887 his health failed, and in Au- 

 gust, 1887, he died in the residence build- 

 ing into which he and his immediate family 

 and the greater family making up the com- 

 mission force had moved but three years 

 before. 



The funeral services were read by the 

 rector of the Episcopal Church of "Woods 

 Hole. To the prescribed church service 

 were added two of the beatitudes which 

 appeared to those who had been associated 

 with him most intimately to refiect the high 

 points of his character. They were the 

 ones which pronounce blessings on the 

 peace-makers, and on those who are pure in 

 heart. 



Professors A. E. Verrill and Sydney I. 

 Smith are best known to "Woods Hole work- 

 ers for their voluminous and invaluable re- 

 port on the "Invertebrate Animals of Vine- 

 yard Sound and Adjacent "Waters. ' ' They 

 were alike in that they were zoologists of 

 unfiagging zeal. In all other particulars 

 they were unlike and good-naturedly anti- 

 pathetic. The one was unemotional, 

 dogged, and, to those who did not know 

 him well, seemingly, at times, crusty. The 

 other was quick, vivacious, open and frank 

 in his manner at all times and to all per- 

 sons. They invariably took opposite sides 

 of any question that came up for discus- 

 sion, whether it was scientific, political, 



