deemed interesting. I wish to begin at the foundation by
giving a geographical and geological sketch of the Island."

_Indian Biography_.--"Colonel Haines also wishes you to unite with him
and myself, in writing a series of sketches of celebrated Indians."

Professor Silliman writes (Jan. 20th), acknowledging the receipt of a
memoir on the fossil tree of the River Des Plaines, which was prepared
for the American Geological Society. He requests me to furnish him a
copy of my memoir on the geology of the regions visited by the recent
expedition, or, if it be too long for the purposes of the _American
Journal_, an abstract of it.

_Animal Impressions in Limestone_.--"I am much obliged to you for your
kind intention of furnishing me with a paper on the impressions in
limestone, and I hope you will bear it in mind, and execute it
accordingly.

"I have observed the appointment which the newspapers state that you
have received from the government, and regret that it carries you so far
south,[11] into an unhealthy climate; wishing you, however, health and
leisure to pursue those studies which you have hitherto prosecuted so
successfully."

[Footnote 11: This is evidently an allusion to St. Mary's, in Georgia,
instead of Michigan.]

Professor Frederick Hall, of Middlebury College, addresses me (Jan.
14th) on the same subject. He alludes to my treatise "On the Mines,
Minerals, &c., of the western section of the United States;" a work for
which our country and the world are deeply indebted to your enlightened
enterprise and unrelaxing zeal. Before reading it, I had a very
inadequate conception of the actual extent and riches of the lead mines
of the West. It seems, according to your account, that these mines are
an exhaustless source of wealth to the United States. "I should feel glad
to have them put under your superintendence; and to have you nurture up
a race of expert mineralogists, and become a Werner among them."

Professor Silliman writes (Jan. 25th): "When I wrote you last, I had not
been able to procure your memoir on the fossil tree. I read it, however,
immediately after, and was so much pleased with it, that I extracted the
most important parts in the _American Journal_, giving credit, of
course, to you and to the Geological Society."

_Jan. 29th_. Chester Dewy, Professor, &c., in Williams College, Mass.,
writes a most kind and friendly letter, in which he presents various
subjects, in the great area of the We