Letters to a Friend 



Love to all, Keith and the boys and 

 McChesney, etc. 



Don't forward any letters from the Oakland 

 office. I want only mountains until my return 

 to civilization. 



Sissons Station, 



December 9th, 1874. 



Coming in for a sleep and rest, I was glad to 

 receive your card. I seem to be more than mar 

 ried to icy Shasta. 



One yellow, mellow morning six days ago, 

 when Shasta snows were looming and blooming, 

 I slept outside the bar-room door to gaze and 

 was instantly drawn up over the meadows, over 

 the forests, to the main Shasta glacier in one 

 rushing cometic whizz, then, swooping to Shasta 

 valley, whirled off around the base like a satel 

 lite of the grand icy sun. I have just completed 

 my first revolution. Length of orbit, 100 miles; 

 time, one Shasta day. 



For two days and a half I had nothing in the 

 way of food, yet suffered nothing and was finely 

 [ 172] 



