1 9 



Woods Holl the place of operations. As Professor 

 Jenks was a warm personal friend of Baird, he was 

 naturally solicited to become his assistant. This of 

 course he could not now do. He, however, con- 

 sented to attach himself to the Commission as a 

 supernumerary, working as he had opportunity with- 

 out pay, and being allowed the duplicates for Brown. 

 This was a fortunate circumstance, as it gave him a 

 prestige at the outset, and a valuable collection of 

 Marine Fauna. Another fortunate circumstance: 

 John Cassin, a noted Ornithologist and author, hav- 

 ing just died, his collection, in skin and properly la- 

 belled, was on sale in Philadelphia. The Professor 

 saw the advertisement, and without waiting to write, 

 with his accustomed promptness, took the next train 

 for the City of Brotherly Love. The price was 

 three hundred dollars, and the number of skins was 

 twenty-five hundred more or less. The money was 

 at once paid, and the collection, numbering on count 

 upwards of four thousand, was expressed to Provi- 

 dence. The next day a letter was received from 

 Professor Agassiz wanting it for Harvard. He also, 

 like the Yale collector, was twenty-four hours too 

 late. The famous Blanding collection, to which 

 Dr. Carpenter of Pawtucket had made allusion at 

 the Alumni meeting in June, was through the perse- 

 verance and zeal of the new Curator, transferred 

 from its temporary quarters at the homestead in 

 Rehoboth to Rhode Island Hall. The founder of 

 this collection, Dr. William Blanding, was a native 



