270 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 
not. He is the most notorious snake, salamander, bug, cave-bone, 
wolf, panther and tadpole catcher in the community, your humble 
servant perhaps excepted; having been his Lieutenant for years, 
and companion in his various misfortunes by lake, river and moun- 
tain. He caught most of those Julus and Passalus I sent you, besides 
doing many other things too numerous to mention. Use him well 
for my sake as well as his own. 
Yours truly, 
S. F. Barrp. 
From John Wilson to Spencer F. Baird. 
Caruisxz, Nov. 18, 1851. 
Dear Pror. 
You are anxious to hear about the bones. A week ago 
MoCauley and I made a pilgrimage to the cave in which that bone® 
was found last summer. It is distant from S. about 12 miles. We 
understood the cave to be a very small one, and made no preparations 
for very extensive explorations. After losing the way twice, we 
finally succeeded in getting two miles beyond the place, and then 
drove back to the veritable hole. The owner of the farm was absent, 
and (we) found his father, a man of about 70, and an elderly maiden 
sister in charge of matters. They are people of great simplicity 
and were surprised that we had come all the way from 5S. to see the 
cave. I went into the house and had quite a chat with the old folks, 
but could not succeed in showing the old folks the use of hunting 
up old bones. They declared they could not see any use in the thing— 
there was nothing to be made at it—although I talked as learnedly as 
possible. I succeeded at least in making them believe we were some- 
body. The cave is a vast opening nearly as large as Keefer’s. 
It differs from that, however, in being almost free from stalactitic 
formations. The cave is formed by the openings between limestone 
rocks in a small hill. The main cavern is about three quarters of a 
mile in length, and there are numberless lateral openings of consider- 
able size. We were unable to find in what part of it the famous 
3 A fossil bone about which the professor had expressed especial 
curiosity. 
