Letters to a Friend 



my first thoughts about this glacier work as I 

 go along and afterwards gather them and press 

 them for the Boston wise ; or will it be better 

 to hold work and say it all at a breath ? You 

 see how practical I have become and how 

 fully I have burdened you with my little 

 affairs. 



Perhaps you will ask, "What plan are you 

 going to pursue in your work ? " Well, here it is, 

 the only book I ever have invented. First 

 I will describe each glacier with its tributaries 

 separately, then describe the rocks and hills 

 and mountains over which they have flowed or 

 past which they have flowed, endeavoring to 

 prove that all of the various forms which those 

 rocks now have are the necessary result of the 

 ice action in connection with their structure 

 and cleavage, etc. Also the different kinds of 

 canons and lake-basins and meadows which 

 they have made. Then, armed with this data, 

 I will come down to the Yosemite, where all 

 my ice has come, and prove that each dome and 

 brow and wall and every grace and spire and 

 [ 109 ] 



