Letter from GEORGE PERKINS MARSH to SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD, dated January 14, 1854.
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Dear Baird
Why didst thou foolishly say that the Auerochs was 'confined to the region between the Caspian and the Black Sea'? Lieth Lithuania, I prithee, betwixt the Euxine and the Caspian? Is the forest of Bialistok perchance on the slopes of Caucasus, or was Schamyl the prince that promulgated those 'severe enactments' for the protection of the Urus? Study thy map, read Peter Parley, and blush.
I have passed certain days in Melita, seen Paul's cave, and am come hither to read the letter which Virgin Mary wrote to them of Zancle, in reply to their embassy of condolence. Also I shall try to recover, if I may, the boxes of Empedocles, and send them to thee for an'otomy, but thou mayest see whether the Greek philosopher and our American savant be of one species.
We do propose, after visiting
Taurominus and other towns in the hither part of
Trinacria to proceed unto the Panormitan city, and perhaps even to Segesta and
Drepanum, yea, and if possible to inspect what remaineth of Agrigentum, and then we
shall rest a while at Rome, whither thou mayest address they missives. It shall go
hard, but I will get thee or thy spouse a pair of gloves or stockings woven of the
beard of the Pinna Marmia wherein thou wilt exceedingly delight on bearing witness
to thy love for the science of natural history.
I send to for his library tomes presented to me by the , by order of Sir William Reid, Knight , Governor c, right famous for his books on storms, I pray they be duly acknowledged, and fitting return made, if thou will have shell-fish or other fish, or lizards, in way of acknowledgment! tis but to speak, and if thou sendest good books, good vermin shall be repaid to thee. I shall write thee from time to time though thou art but an ill correspondent in respect of punctuality.
Truly thineG. P. Marsh
References in this letter:
Euxine is the Black Sea.
Peter Parley was the pseudonym of Samuel Griswold Goodrich (1793-1860), the author of many children's books.
The ancient city founded by the Chalcidians in Sicily. Zancle is the site of modern Messina.
Sir William Reid (1791-1858) was a Scottish engineer and meterologist.