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finished drawing of a bird in flight hovering 
over a flower. Baird glanced at the drawing 
with a kindly but questioning look and 
hesitatingly inquired, "And what is the 
species of the bird?" This ended the episode 
which, by the way, was the artist's first real 
lesson in the realm of science. 
 In the spring of 1872 Holmes was appointed 
artist to the U.S. Geological Survey of the 
Territories under Dr. F. V. Hayden, to succeed 
Henry W. Elliott who had resigned the position 
to join the Polaris Expedition under the 
direction of Dr. Emil Bessels. The summer of 
1872 was spent with the Survey of the 
Yellowstone country, now the Yellowstone 
National Park, Reached from Ogden, Utah, by 
^[[in ink]] a coach & four, a wild drive, [[end 
ink]] [[strikethrough]] pack train [[strikethrough]]
where ample opportunity was afforded to prove 
his ability with the pencil and incidentally 
as a mountaineer and graphic recorder of 
geological phenomena; and the following winter 
was spend in Washington preparing maps and 
illustrations for the reports of the Survey 
and in the study of art. [[pencilled]] See 
detailed accounts of the years from 1872 to 
1879 in the annual reports of that Survey 

[[end pencil]]

The survey of Colorado followed in 1873 with 
Denver as a basis of operations. Holmes 
climbed many of the principal peaks of the 
front ranges and was the first person known to 
reach the summit of the then mysterious 
mountain of the Holy Cross. (See detailed 
account of this ascent herewith) In 1874, 
continuing under the same auspices, he had 
made such progress in field geology that 
he was appointed Assistant Geologist on the 
Survey and assisted the Director in the study 
of the great mountain