Letter from GEORGE PERKINS MARSH to SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD, dated July 4 and July 14, 1854.
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Dear Baird
You will no doubt be suprised to learn, that the place I date from has emerged from
the waters and become dry land. Trees have grown, shed their leaves &
perished, & been suceeded by new forests, a vegetable soil has been formed,
& subdued by tillage, & men have built here a city called Berne, of
the bears which once abounded here. All this is recent, & the oldest
inhabitants inform us that it is not above fifty million years since the highest
part of the town was upheaved above the sea. I have made other equally curious
discoveries in these regions, visited a mountain called Blank, where there are glaciers, & came hither through clefts in
the mountains
called Tête Noire & Gemmi, grand & wonderful to
behold. I wrote you from Rome in March & in April but have no reply, which
is a pity, in regard that punctuality in correspondence is a virtue much to be
commended in juvenile persons. I perceive the has arrived, &
hope you are happy in your keg of reptiles. I have nothing to add to them but a box
of snails of various sorts I gathered on the Alps & Jura, & which I
hope to bring home alive, to the end that you may introduce them if you think them
likely to be useful.
Paris July 14 1854
We came hither certain days since having seen the Munster-Thal that is the way of
Nature, & the two cathedrals of Freyburg (Breisgau) & Strasburg in
that of art, since we left Berne. I found here yours of May 6: & two from
Gilliss of May 8 & 23. I thank you both for them. I grieve at what you say
of Mary, but as Gilliss says she returned from
New York improved in health, I hope she is essentially better. I am sorry for the
condition of the
Smithsonian, but have
expected, no better. I never liked the compromise, but was willing to abide by it,
& regret that others have been so reluctant to carry it fairly out. It has
been a mistake, & public opinion will some day make it right. Jewett will be an impossible loss, &
what's more a troublesome opponent, & I think there will be a general
explosion by & by. I am glad I am not in the board, as I know very well that
I could be of no use under present circumstances, if indeed under any. I rather
congratulate Jewett on his probable release from what must long have been a very
disagreeable position.
As to my future movements I begin to see a little ahead, & think we shall go
to London next week, & sail for Boston about Aug 5'- I don't think I shall
go to Washington before October, though I proceed immediately thither.
I go very reluctantly, & there is hardly anything but the meeting with your
family, Gilliss & one or two other Washington friends, that I look forward
to with any pleasure. Jewett I shall very likely meet in N. England, (& why
not you too?) as I presumed he has
withdrawn before this. My wife acknowledges
her shortcomings towards Mary, but writing by amanuensis is hard, and she has too
many correspondents. Let Mary take as much of mine to you as she thinks good to
herself, but this that follows is to you. Waterton (quick isn't he?) says the water ouzel don't walk on the bottom,
contrary to the laws of gravity c c. Well, I was at Tegernsee on the Tyrol one day,
looking out of the window, & watching an ouzel on a log. Pretty soon he
jumped into shallow water, walked down into deeper, & when he got fairly
under partly spread his wings and shuffled along the bottom, keeping his wings
shivering about 20 feet. I think he used the wings to counteract the buoyancy of his
body, as a man may his hands & feet, to, swim , when he can't
dive. Don't steal this. I shall put it into my work on Nat. Hist. along with the
bicipitous saints. Fare you well.
Yours trulyG. P. Marsh
Prof. S. F. Baird
References in this letter:
Mount Blanc is the highest peak in the Alps.
James Melville Gilliss (1811-1865) was both a naval officer and astronomer. He was responsible for proposing and supervising the building of Naval Observatory in Washington, DC (1842-1844). In 1846 he was assigned to the U.S. Coast Survey and spent several years in Chile conducting astronomical observations. The Gilliss family, based in Washington, became close friends of the Marshes and the Bairds.
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.
Charles Coffin Jewett (1816-1868), a distinguished librarian from Brown University, was appointed senior assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1848. He and Joseph Henry were continually in conflict over the importance of the library within the Institution's mandate and he was fired by the Board in 1855. He later became superintendent of the Boston Public Library.
Charles Waterton (1782-1865) wrote extensively on ornithology and natural history.