Letters to a Friend 



My love to Allie and to the Doctor, and I am 

 ever most 



Cordially yours, 



JOHN Mum. 

 Address to Snelling for the next few months. 



Yosemite, [1871.] 



"The Spirit" has again led me into the 

 wilderness, in opposition to all counter attrac 

 tions, and I am once more in the glory of the 

 Yosemite. 



Your very cordial invitation to your home 

 reached me as I was preparing to ascend and 

 my whole being was possessed with visions of 

 snowy forests of the pine and spruce, and of 

 mountain spires beyond, pearly and half trans 

 parent, reaching into heavens blue not purer 

 than themselves. 



In company with another young fellow whom 

 I persuaded to walk, I left the plains just as the 

 first gold sheets were being outspread. My first 

 plan was to follow the Tuolumne upward as I 

 had followed the Merced downward, and, after 

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