1850 TO 1865 363 
takes charge of the Paleontology here, and is now getting up a work 
on the Cretaceous fossils in an entirely new style, much better adapted 
to the use of students than any now extant. 
I see no reason why you should not with his assistance eventually 
work up the geology of your region in such a thorough manner as to 
have your name fully identified with it for all time. 
Your collections made with intelligence and care would enable 
him to straighten out the whole thing in proper style. It is very 
certain that the opinions of geologists as to the various formations in 
the Mackenzie River Region are, in many points at least, quite wrong. 
Please call the attention of Messrs. Hardisty, Lockhart, Orion 
and Jones, and the rest, to the importance of collecting fossils, and 
especially to giving the localities and positions—a grand locality is 
the ramparts at Good Hope. 
1863 proved a very busy year. On the 22nd of June 
the Bairds left the city to spend the summer at Wood’s 
Hole, Mass., their first visit to the place, selected nine 
years later as the site of the laboratories of the United 
States Fish Commission. Here Baird seems to have had, 
for the first time in many years, a real holiday. A little 
collecting of birds and fishes, some necessary letter writ- 
ing, but for the most part relaxation and rest. A month 
later he returned alone to Washington, but was again at 
Wood’s Hole in the latter part of August, and this time 
devoting his days with accustomed energy to collecting 
fishes. The summer by the sea appeared to have bene- 
fited Mrs. Baird’s health, but Lucy was still delicate. 
The Professor notes that he had gained twenty pounds 
more than he had ever weighed before. Quite a body of 
students were now at work in the Smithsonian laboratories. 
Elliott Coues, one of the most brilliant of them, 
became an army surgeon and, desiring to combine orni- 
thology with his military duties, was sent to a post in 
New Mexico. 
