Letter from GEORGE PERKINS MARSH to SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD, dated October 19, 1850.
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Dear Baird
By the Lucinda Sears, which sailed from Constantinople for Boston, via Smyrna, on the
29' of September, I shipped a keg of fish c directed to the Smithsonian Institution.
The keg is consigned to Yasigi and Goddard of
, and I have written to them to send it by unless
directed to the contrary. If therefore you want any other disposition made of it,
write to Yasigi & Goddard accordingly. Of the smaller fish of the
Bosphorous, there are about 250 specimens, of more than 20 species. There are a few
crabs, & some , which latter with a couple of tree
frogs, and other oddities, are by themselves in cotton batting. I could get but one
lizard, & he is minus a part of the tail, but I shall do better next time.
Some of the specimens have lost the back fin, the fisherman, ignorant wretch, cut it
out because it was poisonous. I am sorely afraid the whole will spoil. They were in
perfect order, & I had two tin cases prepared to pack them. On the morning
of the 28" Sept. I was informed that the ship would sail that day, instead of
remaining a week longer, as had been
intended, and immediately packed the fish
in the cases in fresh spirit. Unluckily, in spite of the pains I had taken to have
the cases re-soddered at all the joints, they proved leaky, and I was obliged to use
a cask, which had not been opened with proper precautions. The cooper warranted it
tight, but after all, it did a little. The captain promised to
set his cooper about it and I he will make it tight, but after all it
is not impossible that I may lose my labour and you your specimens. My poor wife has
been confined to her room, and most of the time to her bed for two months. She
occasionally now gets out into the parlour for a few hours, but cannot, stand a
walk, and suffers a great deal of severe pain. I hope to be off for Egypt early in
December, and intend to be absent three months or thereabouts. We had hoped to cross
the desert to Syria, but I have now no idea that Mrs Marsh can bear the journey We
intend to go up the Nile as far as Thebes, perhaps even to Assouan, and if possible
on our return to stop at Jaffa & go up to Jerusalem, & visit such
other places as Mrs Marsh's strength will allow. Write me as often as you can,
& enclose your letters under cover to John Miller U S Dispatch Agent London.
I believe pay postage only to N.Y. or Boston. Love to Mary in which as well as to
yourself Mrs M joins,
Truly yoursG P. Marsh
Above the first cataract, it is said there is greater variety. I refer
you to Dr. Wislizenus for such vague
observations as I have been able to make, but they are too loose to be of
much interest to you. Write often and , and make dear Mary do
the like, to your true friend.
Prof. S. F. Baird
Geo P. Marsh
References in this letter:
A Boston shipping company.
Frederick Adolph Wislizenus (1810-1889), a German born physician, emigrated to the United States in 1835. He published a scientific account of his trip to Chihuahua, Mexico in Memoirs of a Tour to Northern Mexico, Connected with Colonel Doniphan's Expedition in 1846 and 1847. (Washington: Tippin and Streeper, 1848). In 1850 he married Lucy Crane, Caroline Crane Marsh's sister; they settled in St. Louis where he practiced medicine.