THE YOUNG PROFESSOR 215 
and lest I should be hurt, he had carefully cut off the dangerous part! 
Well I told him that was just what I wanted. So he has gone in 
search of more. I could do a great deal better for you, but the expense 
of every material and of every sort of work is so enormous, that the 
revenue of the Smithsonian would not suffice for one naturalist at 
Constantinople. I have seen nothing so rich in ichthyology as the 
bay of Naples. It is wonderful what a variety of curious sea bred 
creatures they eat there. I thought of you every time I went out. 
I am rejoiced, with my whole heart, at the success of both your 
translations. I hope to be at home at Washington again some day, 
and shall be very happy to promote your views so far as I am able. 
You will be a “great aid and comfort” to Jewett and will find him 
a most efficient and able auxiliary. I learn from Garrigue that he 
is entirely content with your work, and hope it will be a lucrative 
affair for both of you. The text, I confess, disappoints me. It is 
far from being full enough. Did you add anything? Well, I claim 
apartofthecredit. Qui facit per alium etc. And didn’t I recommend 
you to Garrigue? 
I wish the Smithsonian would send out a few sets of meteorological 
instruments to be used here and at other missionary stations. Our 
missionaries are a truly noble set of men, and as remarkable for talent 
as for devotion to their cause. There are many excellent observers 
among them, and whatever they undertake will be faithfully and 
thoroughly done. We mean to go to Egypt this winter and back by 
way of Syria, if my poor wife is well enough. What particular thing 
do you want me to look for in those countries? I wish I had two or 
three barometers, I would carry one along and observe at every 
resting place, and by leaving one at Alexandria and another at 
Bayreuth, I suppose some interesting results might be arrived at. 
We shall try to go to Petra (this is a little confidential), but I am 
afraid Mrs. M. can’t cross the desert. 
The natural history of the Bosphorus, though you would find 
it interesting and full of life, is not striking to an ignoramus. There 
being no forests, and scarcely any trees, there are few birds. Hawks 
of various kinds abound. There are a few storks, two kinds of gulls 
very abundant and very tame, and the “dme damnée” by thousands. 
There are many fish principally small, and quite a variety of shellfish, 
but in Coleoptera, as I learned from Mr. Souza the Spanish minister, 
