306 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME. [1843, 



nearly to the time that I hope to leave here again ; 

 for I find, from the way the president takes it up, 

 that I shall have no difficulty in obtaining the sanc- 

 tion of the corporation to my proposed mountain tour. 

 But of that I shall know certainly in a day or two. 

 In that case I shall hope to see you again in the latter 

 part of August, perhaps as soon as the middle. . . . 



Dr. came here the day I returned. He still 



garnishes, as ever, his lack of ideas with a deliber- 

 ate profundity of words. 



I found on my return a letter from my brother, 

 announcing the approaching marriage of my youngest 

 sister ; which event took place, I suppose, on the 20th 

 inst., the day I left New York. Had I received the 

 letter in New York, I should have arranged to be 

 present on the occasion. I wonder if my turn will 

 ever come ! 



TO W. J. HOOKER. 



CAMBRIDGE, llth August, 1843. 



I leave home this afternoon for New York, on my 

 way to the Alleghany Mountains in the north of 

 Virginia, where I expect to meet my excellent friend 

 Mr. Sullivant, of Ohio. We hope to trace the more 

 westerly ranges of the mountains down to North 

 Carolina and Tennessee, to revisit my old ground in 

 Ashe County, etc., and to continue our journey farther 

 south into Georgia, coming out at Augusta on the 

 Savannah River ; thence I may go to Charleston and 

 return by water. But if time allows I shall perhaps 

 run through upper Georgia and Alabama, to the 

 Tennessee River, down that to the Ohio, and thence 

 home. My chief object is to obtain live plants and 

 seeds ; we shall be too late in the season for the best 



