^:T. 66.] TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. 675 



thousand to eight thousand feet. Here it passes for 

 P. Jaffreyi or Jeffreyi. Is it so ? Is it distinct ? On 

 bare side of Silver Mountain we found P. monophylla 

 with cones, both maturing and this year's. . . . 



Cmco, September 5, 1877. 



. . . Thanks for your letter to San Francisco. We 

 are keeping lively ; are on the way to Shasta. 



What if we were to return via St. Louis : will you 

 insure us against malaria and fever ? Want to talk 

 Conif era3 with you. . . . 



CAMBRIDGE, September 24, 1877. 



We are just back via Niagara ; Hooker and I via 

 New York, and the former having the Sunday with 

 Eaton at New Haven, All well and happy to get 

 home after a prosperous and, as you may imagine, 

 laborious journey of ten and a half weeks. The trip 

 to Shasta involved long stagecoach journeys, but they 

 were most interesting. Keturning to Sacramento we 

 went on to Truckee, where Lemmon l joined us by ap- 

 pointment. We gave one day to Mount Stanford and 

 one to Tahoe, then took the overland train as it came 

 on at midnight, and thence had no stationary bed till 

 we reached Niagara. And we live to tell the story ! 



I want to tell you what we are led to think about 

 Firs and Spruces. I will give in this my own opinions, 

 which lie yet open, but are likely to settle down, ex- 

 cept you convince me to the contrary on some points. 

 Hooker comes to the same conclusions or nearly, but 

 I will keep to my own only in this letter, and ask 

 what you think of them, off-hand. Your reply will 

 come to hand before Sir Joseph sails. . . . 



1 J. G. Lemmon ; late botanist of the California State Board of 

 Forestry ; author of a report on California Conifers. 



