LETTERS TO GUYOT 



" I think when you hear the results of Prof. J. D. 

 Whitney's survey of California, you will modify your 

 opinion with regard to the Pacific border of our continent. 

 He finds that the supposed carboniferous beds of the 

 Shartz region are mesozoic; finds cretaceous rocks and 

 fossils in many parts of the Sierra Nevada, and inclines 

 to the opinion that the mountains were not thrown up 

 before the later cretaceous or the tertiary. I have 

 known his facts for the year past, but have no permission 

 to publish them before his own report is issued. I incline 

 to the opinion that the western sides of the continents are 

 alike in the age of their highest mountains ; and the eastern 

 alike in the age of their highest. But this is something 

 for the future to determine. 



" We shall be happy to have anything from you for the 

 Journal, and hope you will send on the few pages from 

 your Earth and Man. 



" My labors have worn a little on my health and make 

 me feel the need of complete rest for two or three weeks ; 

 and I intend to take it." 



DANA TO GUYOT 



"NEW HAVEN, February 14, 1865. 



" I had hoped for the pleasure of meeting you in Wash- 

 ington, at the meeting of the National Academy, and did 

 not know till recently that you were not there. I was not 

 disabled by any special illness at the time, but saw plainly 

 that it would not do for me to play President at Wash- 

 ington during a brief vacation, and then return to my 

 geological course here. Could I have had a week's 

 recruiting after the meeting, I should probably have 

 attended it. 



' I wish most heartily I were out of the office of Vice- 

 President, and I think I shall take an early opportunity 

 to abdicate. It makes the meetings, now that Bache is 

 unwell, times of great fatigue for me, and of no satisfac- 

 tory intercourse with friends on the ground. I dislike 

 the duty, and care nothing for the honor of it. You will 

 not be surprised, therefore, if my resignation is handed 

 in not long hence. . . . 



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