Publication InformationRome March 21 1854

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Dear Baird

Yours of 5' ult rec'd & cont's noted. Glad you're well; per contra, sorry Mary wearied herself with that party. Hope she's better. Answer to mine of Jan'y 14 daily expected, c c c

A week after I wrote you last, we commenced our tour in Sicily, & excepting three days of snow in the interior of the island, had delightful weather and a most agreeable journey. We followed the coast landwise to Catania, then went to Syracuse, returned to Catania, the & spent three glorious days on Etna, and then journeyed to Girgenti, finding everywhere good carriage roads, though unluckily without bridges. (N.B. between Messina & Catania are torrents three and thirty impassable after rains & some of them 1/4 of a mile wide), so that it is only in dry weather, that travelling is practicable. I have seen no country which presented so great a variety of scenery, none physically more interesting than Sicily. For ten days, Etna was without a cloud from the sea to its peak, and as few mountains sour as high above their own bases, there are few so grandiose in their aspect. There was too much snow to climb the summit, but we went first to Nicolosi, the highest town on the South side, at the foot of the cone of the great eruption of 1669, & afterwards to Taferena on the eastern side, just below the outlet of the

Val del Bove. From Taferena, my niece & I climbed the peak of Pomiciaro, which directly overhangs the val del Bove, and commands a complete bird's eye view of the whole of that most stupendous chasm, and rises to a height of probably 7000 feet. I have read many descriptions of this abyss, but had no idea of its vast extent or its exceeding grandeur, until I looked down into it from above. The eruption of 1852 flowed from a fissure in the cliff, & two cones at its upper extremity, and almost the whole floor of the valley was covered by the lava. The cones & the lava are still hot & smoking. The multitude of the cones of eruption, old & new, on the flanks of the mountain, especially of the southern half, is astonishing. They have been generally stated at 100,, but Walterhausen counted three times that number, & some of them are apparently 1000 feet, many of them 500, in height, what is Vesuvius after this? The multitude of fossil remains in the central portion of the island & on the southern coast is great. I saw only shells, but these are abundant, various, large, & in fine condition. The sulphur mines, I am ashamed to say, I did not see, though near them. None of them are in the modern volcanic district. The fauna of the island, I suppose is not of special interest, but, I believe Conchologists find very good picking, especially on the northern coast.

As to an exchange agent for Italy. The best person is Mr Binda now, and I hope long hereafter, American

Consul at Leghorn. Mr Binda is one learned and enlightened man I have met in Europe, & I presume would readily undertake the agency, though provision should be made to cover all expenses, & perhaps for some small compensation, but in this latter point I cannot speak. Leghorn is a free port, many vessels sail thither from New York, & often with light cargoes. It has a constant communication with Genoa (& of course Turin & Milan) as well as with all the western coast of Italy, & with Sicily, Corsica & Sardinia. In short, it is the best point of distribution for all of Italy except the Eastern coast, but I suppose Venice is the only point, you want to reach on that side, & Venice is directly accessible from Trieste. Turin is quite too far inland for an agent Genoa is the only other good locality, but this is far inferior to Leghorn. A letter to Mr Binda requesting his cooperation would no doubt receive prompt attention & he would be a highly respectable and reliable agent, both for distribution and for conducting any inquiries you may want to make about Italy.

We saw here the last three days of carnival & mean to stay through Holy week We make slow progress in sight-seeing. In fact a life time would hardly exhaust the wonders of Rome. Of scientific interest there is so far as I know not much here. Apropos of science, I shocked an English lady sadly

by telling her I was potting a few lizards for an American friend who was fond of them. Not that I really am hunting vermin, 'twas only a white lie invented to frighten the lady. Fine astrological collections in the convents & churches, but the specimens are seldom complete, & the arrangement does not appear to be very philosophical. The most interesting fact established by them is the existence of a bicipitous variety of the human family, ( for it does not appear to have been a distinct species) within the historical period. Many of their saints of the calendar belonged to this race and John Baptist is cited as having possessed no less than three heads, all now extant, for the confusion of sceptics, but whether these heads were successive or contemporaneous, I cannot ascertain. Upon a careful inquiry & much study of Christian art, however, I am inclined to the opinion, that they were not synchronous, inasmuch as the most authentic sacred images and pictures agree in representing them with a single knowledge-box, differing of course in the different stages of saintly development. My weaker vessel is but so so. Nevertheless, she keepeth up a good heart and sees all she can. Mary's praise is on all our lips. Verily she shall be answered.

Yours trulyG. P. Marsh.

[The following text appears in the left margin on the last page.]
Let Haldermann have praise for Smithsonian. Tis a sad degeneration & I adopt it, but if the comp. is abolished, shall institute Owenium.
[The following text appears at the top of the page beginning "Rome March 21 1854"]
The ship was the . That's plain isn't? Foolish name truly, but 'ow could I 'elp it? Love to Mary & that great girl she writes of, now going on seven years old.

References in this letter:

The city of Catania is the capitol of Catania province in eastern Sicily, located at the foot of Mount Etna.

The entomologist Samuel Stehman Haldemann (1812-1880) was professor of Natural Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Marsh sent him specimens from Constantinople.

The Smithsonian was founded in 1846 with a bequest of James Smithson for the "increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." How this was to be accomplished, how the Institution should be organized and what should be the scope of its activities, became subjects of great controversy in the early years of its existence.