Letters to a Friend 



is anything in particular that you want, let me 

 know. Mrs. Yelverton will not leave the valley 

 for some weeks, and you have time to write. I 

 am 



Ever your friend, 



J. MUIR. 



Tuolumne River, two miles below La Grange, 



November 4th, 1870. 



Yours of October 2nd reached me a few days 

 since. The Amazon and Andes have been in all 

 my thoughts for many years, and I am sure that 

 I shall meet them some day ere I die, or become 

 settled and civilized and useful. I am obliged to 

 you for all this information. I have studied 

 many paths and plans for the interior of South 

 America, but none so easy and sure ever ap 

 peared as this of your letter. I thought of land 

 ing at Guayaquil and crossing the mountains to 

 the Amazon, floating to Para, subsisting on ber 

 ries and quinine, but to steam along the palmy 

 shores with company and comforts is perhaps 

 more practical though not so pleasant. Haw- 

 [93] 



