'28 PROCEEDINGS OE THE BOSTON MEETING 



-he replied quizzically, "I studied a good deal when not working/' 

 There is one verdict available to us from a teacher at Tonawanda, New 

 York, where the lad of ten, as an incident in a long visit to an aunt 

 living there, attended for a time a school conducted by George R. 

 Barker. Upon his departure Mr. Barker wrote as follows to Grove 

 ■Sheldon Gilbert: 



"It affords me much pleasure to make to you a commendatory report of your 

 son Karl's conduct. During the four months he has been in my school his 

 ■deportment has been unexceptionable, and he has been a most faithful, indus- 

 trious, and attentive student, meriting in every way my highest approbation. 

 It is with much regret that I part with so exemplary a scholar. I am sure 

 that a boy of Karl's ingenuousness of character can not fail to find friends 

 wherever he may go. May success crown all his efforts." 



This glowing opinion is supported by that of the aunt with whom 

 Karl was then visiting. She wrote to his father as follows on October 

 1, 1853 : 



"He (Karl) advances famously with his studies. ... I believe he could 

 learn double the number of lessons if required." 



The lessons at that time, as listed by the lad himself in a letter to his 

 father, included Latin and French, as well as English, grammar, spell- 

 ing, arithmetic, and reading. 



So the years passed in enthusiastic study and in wholesome play. 

 The Genesee River was only a block from the Gilbert home, and that 

 fact had its due influence upon the boy's activities. He and a playmate 

 from the neighborhood together built two or three small rowboats and 

 Karl became a skilled oarsman. He is reported to have won at least 

 one regatta, by default, in a boat of his own building, the owners of the 

 other craft in his class withdrawing, for they had seen the Great Western,^ 

 as Karl called his tiny craft, in action and did not relish a contest 

 with it. 



The skill in rowing and the enjoyment of it, acquired in this boyhood 

 environment, lasted throughout Gilbert's life; for in late years, after 

 impaired health had placed limits upon his physical activities, one of his 

 favorite recreations was rowing or canoeing with a congenial companion 

 on the Potomac or on Lake Cayuga. Doubtless, too, the boyhood sports 

 on the Genesee River made possible that efficiency in watermanship which 

 contributed so much to the success of the remarkable trip of Lieutenant 

 Wheeler and associates in 1871 up the lower canyons of the Colorado 

 Hiver to the mouth of Diamond Creek. A reading of the narratives of 



