632 TRAVEL IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. [1872, 



local irritation. And in the tendril the coiling below 

 is just a continuation of the same movement or same 

 change as that which incurved the tip in clasping, 

 that is, a relative shortening of concave or lengthen- 

 ing of the convex side of the tendril. Would you not 

 infer that the action was propagated downward ? 



So you were astonished at Mrs. Gray's audacity. 

 Well, " tou jours 1'audace ; ' she is all the better for 

 it. Some horseback work in getting to and into the 

 Yosemite Valley was severe, but she bore it so well 

 that I ventured, when we made our detour into the 

 Colorado Rocky Mountains, to take her up to the sum- 

 mit of Gray's Peak, 14,300 feet, or thereabouts, where 

 she acquitted herself nobly. The day was perfect, the 

 success complete, and the memory of it one of the 

 most delightful of the many pleasant memories of the 

 whole journey. Our great trip was the round from 

 San Francisco to Mariposa Grove, Yosemite Valley, 

 entering over Glacier Point, from which (tell your 

 sons) is a new trail down the 4,000 feet into the 

 valley ; made excursions from the valley during several 

 days, and returned by a long sweep through the little 

 Tuolumne grove, round foothills to Murphy's and the 

 Calaveras Grove, and so back to San Francisco. 

 Afterwards Mrs. Gray and I went to Santa Cruz and 

 up the San Lorenzo Valley among noble redwoods, 

 rivaling the Sequoia gigantea. On return we made 

 one stretch to the east base of the Rocky Mountains, 

 then down to Denver, and up into the mountains, to 

 8,400 feet, where we had a pleasant week or more (just 

 the climate to give strength to an invalid), whence 

 I climbed a high mountain or two, among them Gray's 

 Peak, the highest, as already mentioned. Thence we 

 caine down to Dubuque and hot weather, on the Mis- 



