CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 103 
The skins were prepared in the old-fashioned way by 
applying to the inner side a preparation usually known as 
“arsenical soap.” This was more troublesome and took 
longer than the later method with dry arsenic in powdered 
form, but was very effectual as a preservative. Many 
of the skins thus preserved are still in good condition 
in the National Museum. The feet and bills were painted 
with a solution of corrosive sublimate, and thus preserved 
from museum pests. When Baird in his letters and Journal 
speaks of “stuffing” birds, he means only that the skin 
was preserved, as the technical term is “unmounted,” 
and not that the bird was prepared in an attitude 
resembling life, for which the term “‘stuffed” is often 
colloquially used. 
Baird also began to collect specimens of wood, and 
notes in the Journal that in one afternoon he obtained 
thirty kinds. He wrote to Espy, the noted meteorologist, 
who sent him blank forms to record his observations of 
the weather. 
From Spencer F. Baird to William M. Baird. 
Caruiste, October 30. 1843 
Dear WILL, 
I would have written to you sooner had it not been that as Alick 
was going I thought that he would tell you all the news. The ducks 
are about here pretty plenty now. I wish you were here to shoot 
some. I have killed several. To show you how they are & what 
kind I will give you an account of my experience in the last eight 
days. Last Saturday week I killed two summer ducks at a shot 
in the marsh opposite the Pike Pond. I had gone out in the afternoon 
merely to get specimens of wood. On Monday last I killed 4 summer 
ducks and a green wing teal, in four shots, and wounded a sprigtail 
& summer duck I did not get. Tuesday I went out with Uncle 
William & Mr. Husten after Pheasants. We rode to Miner’s, and 
then went over to McClure’s Gap and along the foot of the mountain 
