Box 11, Folder 5: Correspondence January-April 1873

Chicago, 15 Jan. 1873 1029 Mich. [illegible]

My dear Mr. Lapham:

Your kind note of the 13th was received while Mr. Purkins was with me. He does not know precisely when he will return to Burlington, but will be in Madison about the 11th, & perhaps a few days previously will be ready to go home when I will accompany him & arrange to have you meet us.

I have [illegible], and have noted what he says about artificially compressed skulls. I have consulted Humphry, which is high authority, who is disposed to regard [illegible] skull [illegible] by Tiedemann, brought from Peru, as Natural. The most satisfactory account, however, that I find as to this practice is by Retzius, (See [illegible] [illegible] on 1859.12.269) Remark, also, his criticism on [illegible], as to the skulls, of the people of this continent being

of our [illegible]. I have one skull from the mounds in which the occiput is compressed, & consequently the [illegible] are enormously enlarged. But I defy any craniologist to prove an artificial compression in the skulls on which I found my generalizations. There is a [illegible] in the brain capacity, far below that of the Indian, & I find that [illegible]- [illegible] concurs with me.

I thank you for the interest which you manifest in my pursuits. I want some information as to the longevity of our forest trees, such as grow on our mounds & on the rubbish [illegible] of L. [illegible]. Such as the white, black, & jack-oak, the tulip tree, hemlock, Spruce &c. I imagine that 600 years would mark the [illegible] of most of them, & that therefore they do not indicate the absolute amount of time which has lapsed as Schoolcraft & others, suppose. Since these structures were abandoned, I have no doubt that the conditions of soil & climate have remained constant, but there has been time enough for several generations of trees to flourish.

Truly J. W. F.

Dr. Lapham. I have information as to the longevity of many foreign trees, but not of our own.

[Left Page] S. P. Esq. to Gov Washburn Jan 11, 1873

[Right Page] Office of the Lake Superior Iron Co. Marquette, Lake Superior, Mich. Jan 16th 1873

Hon Wm J. Heiner Chm Senate Committee Geological Survey Madison, Wis.

Dear Sir, It occurs to me to make the suggestion to your Committee that if a Geological Survey of your State should soon be made, the work on the Northern portion of it including the Iron Region adjacent to that of Michigan, would have a greater unity & value in all probability if it were done under the same direction & by the same parties with our Michigan survey which is now finished & will soon be published

The really responsible Director of the Geological Survey of the Michigan Iron Region is Major T. B. Brooks of this city. I have carefully noted his work during the three years in which it has been on foot & can bear testimony to its thoroughness & value.

I venture to make the suggestion that as Director of [illegible] or of the whole of your work, you would find Major Brooks a thoroughly competent & able man who would come through what he undertook in the interests of of science & with a determination to

secure accurate & valuable results

I am Your obt Sevt S. P. Ely

Davenport Iowa Jany 16th 1873

Dr I A Lapham

My Dear Sir, I do not know when I have been better pleased than in reading your article on Botanical classification in Wisconsin. [illegible] translations. It seems to me that you have struck on just the right view and whatever botanical authorities may say, at first it will be eventually adopted and Coniferae transferred to its proper place between Monocotyledons & [illegible] The points you bring out are clear in convincing me of those