620 TRAVEL IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. [1871, 



that you have heard us talk of not a little. It is de- 

 lightful. I know nothing to give you so good an idea 

 of it as the Devonshire coast, there being plenty of 

 wood quite down to the water. Were we there now, 

 Miss K. and Charles Loring would, I know, charge 

 me with messages. 



I must tell you that the Scientific Association is in- 

 vited to meet at San Francisco, California, next sum- 

 mer ; and that we have fixed the meeting there condi- 

 tionally, that is, in case the Californians care enough 

 for our presence to transport a certain number of our 

 representative men free of cost, or nearly so, across 

 the wide continent. If not, we are to meet on the 

 northern part of the Mississippi, at Dubuque, Iowa, 

 far enough west in all conscience, but a place from 

 which we may easily reach the Falls of St. Anthony 

 and Lake Superior. I must needs attend, as I shall 

 have a retiring address to deliver. And though I 

 can ill spare the time or afford the expense, yet Mrs. 

 Gray and I are longing to see California. What say 

 you and Mrs. Church about joining us for your next 

 summer's vacation ? The mountains which form the 

 sides of the Yosemite Valley will hardly offer as 

 many kinds of flowers as the alpine turf of the Riffel- 

 berg, but they may be more novel to you. . . . 



On December 15, 1871, Dr. Gray wrote to Presi- 

 dent Eliot, after describing formally the completion 

 of the new buildings, and something of the history and 

 arrangement of the department, the following letter : 



... I beg to add, for your consideration and that 



of the corporation, a few words of a personal character. 



With the present academic year I shall have com- 



