Letters to a Friend 



Hoping that Ned will be able to come here 

 to the mountain waters for perfect healing and 

 that you will also find leisure for the satisfying 

 of your thirst for beauty, I remain ever 

 Your friend, 



JOHN Mum. 

 My love to Doctor and all the boys. 



Yosemite Valley, 



August 5th, 1872. 



Your letter telling me to catch my best gla 

 cier birds and come to you and the coast moun 

 tains only makes me the more anxious to see 

 you, and if you cannot come up, I will have to 

 come down, if only for a talk. My birds are 

 flying everywhere, into all mountains and 

 plains, of all climes and times, and some are 

 ducks in the sea, and I scarce know what to do 

 about it. I must see the coast ranges and the 

 coast, but I was thinking that a month or so 

 might answer for the present, and then, instead 

 of spending the winter in town, I would hide in 

 Yosemite and write; or I thought I would pack 

 [ 130] 



