RK-292

1857

Beverly Adams. Co Ills Apl 27

Mr Kennicott Sir Your letter of Mar 17. reached us about the begining of this month. you inform us that you had written to us before. I fear that letter will never reach us. Two weeks ago we received your letter of Mar 22. in which you ask us to learn all we can of the shrews. we will save the first one we can get (we have offered the boys a small reward for the one) and we will note every thing we observe concerning them. if we think they will be of any interest to you we will most willingly forward them to you. it may be dificult to find them now. it certainly will be if they fared as bad as the common mole did this winter we have found 4 or 5 of them dead on the ground lately and have seen marks of but one living one this spring. the terrible rains and sudden freezing was more than they could stand

In your first letter you desired us to inquire whether the true pouched gopher was found between the Illinois & Miss rivers. We have made many inquiries & have found no one who knew a Prairie Squirrel from a ground mole who thought they were in this region J M Harvey Deputy Surveyor of the County and his

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Brother J [illegible letter]. A. Who holds a similar post in Pike County have never seen any sign of them they both lived in Ioway some years and know them well. We have ^{been here} over 20 years & have never seen one. You may be very safe in saying that the Gopher is not found in the Counties of Adams Pike or Calhoun nor do I believe they are in Brown Schuyler or Hancock. If we ever do see one here we will let you know

May 4th the foregoing was pennciled while I sitting up with two sick members of my Brothers Family you will therefore excuse the manner in which it is done. We have lately conversed with some of our neighbors who have plowed over 40 acres without seeing more than one or two mice. in common years they would ^have found more than one nest for every acre. turned over we have seen but two snakes yet but we dont wonder that they have not ventured out in such in such a season as we have had

We saw in the last Prairie farmer your appeal in behalf of the North Western University it is a noble undertaking if we did not know how much easier it is to resolve than to ACT we would promise to do a good deal for you. I hope we may be permited to aid you a little. Our observations of natural history can hardly be dignified with the name of study we owe it more to the aimless curiosity of our boyish years than to the thoughtful research of later

Since (and many thanks to you for it) our attention has been more earnestly fixed on the subject. we have thought that we would ^{like to procure some} books on natural history geology &c of which we like most of our neighbour have but a very scant stock one of us has tried to learn more ^{by looking in a few geological books} about this earth we live on than most of folks here kno^w but that is saying but very little Could you not get some friend to recommend throug^h the colums of the P. Farmer a few warks ^works that would suit those who ^have not money enough to buy high priced ones. or time enough to read large ones. or patience to peruse hard dry ones.

You wanted to know whether how close we live to a railroad or river we live within three miles of the S.E corner of Adams Co. 30 mls. from Quincy and about 20 from Naples our nearest railroads. we are often at Griggsville 18 ^mls and Perry 12 m Should you visit this part of the Count^ry we would be much pleased to have ^{see you}. At Ferry Dr Sutphe Dr. Sutphen ^Could give you directions for finding us, at Griggsville Messrs. Azere & Lombard ^merchants or J H. Allen of the Union house might show you teams that would come nearus. at Quincy Hess of the Hess house S M Bartlett Sexton. J. T Baker or E K Stone or the messrs Bulls might could tell you if there was any one from our neighborhood in town Mr. Kirkpatrick the stage from Quincy to Naples (daily) comes within 1 mile of us the librarian has a cabinet of curiosities & might help you very much. I know he would be pleased to see you forgive me for trespassing so much on your time

Yours most respectfully A J. W^m Cutter

Quite a company of the Boys spend a few days in hunting on the Miss Bothom every fall they get some strange birds every year & would like to have some one with them & who could tell what they were