CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 85 



Nevertheless I now write to you, and request you to read this 

 letter more than once, and think deeply on the purport of its con- 

 tents that you may be the more able to form a true Idea of what I 

 intend to say to you, and for yourself to give me a true answer, and 

 one on which I can depend, no matter whether it is to my liking 

 or not. 



It is now determined that I shall go towards the Rocky Mountains 

 at least to the Yellowstone River, and up the latter Stream four 

 hundred of miles, and perhaps go across the Rocky Mountains. I 

 have it in my power to proceed to the Yellowstone by Steamer from 

 St. Louis on the I st day of April next; or to go to the "Mountains, 

 of the Wind" in the very heart and bosom of the Rocky Mountains 

 in the company of Sir William Drummond Stewart, Baronet, who 

 will leave on the I st of May next also from St. Louis. 



It has occurred to me that perchance you would like to spare 

 a few months of your life, to visit the great Western Wilderness, 

 and perhaps again prefer going in my Company in preference to that 

 of any other person? Of this of course I cannot Judge without your 

 answer to this. I thought that you would have been in New York 

 long ere this, but not a Word of you has reached any friend of yours 

 here for several months. I have had an abundance of applications 

 from different sections of the country, from Young Gents who proffer 

 much efficiency, etc., but I do not know them as I know you, and if 

 the terms which I am about to propose to you will answer your 

 own views, I wish you to write to me at once so that I may know 

 how to prepare myself for such a Journey, and under such Circum- 

 stances. 



Would you like to go with me at any rate? By which I mean, 

 whether by Land, or by Water, and undertake, besides acting toward 

 me as a friend, to prepare whatever skins of Birds or Quadrupeds I 

 may think fit for us to bring home. The Birds, you might have one 

 half as your own, the Quadrupeds, (should I wish it) you might have a. 

 4* , or every 4* specimen of the same species, reserving to myselt 

 all that is new or exceedingly rare. 



I will procure and furnish all the materials for skinning, preparing-, 

 and saving whatever we may find in ornithology and in Mammalia, 

 and in all probability (if you think it absolutely necessary) pay one 

 half your expenses from the time we leave Saint Louis until our 



