356 Edward Livingston Youmans, 



began to rise, and when we had got up twenty feet there 

 was a big hotel (Congress). We went round the end of it 

 and up fifteen or twenty feet higher, and then round the 

 end of another hotel (States), then round that, up another 

 little hitch, back farther to the Hotel of the Flowery 

 Mountain. Altogether there is about as much mountain as 

 Chester Hill. As soon as we had got up Spencer proposed 

 we should go to the poste restante for letters ; so we started 

 back on foot, and found the mud worse than at " He-air." 

 It was an awful pull. No letters ; and when I got back I 

 was so used up I could hardly get to the room. Table 

 d'hote at 6.30. A small sally mangy for so large a house, 

 which is full, though there seems to be nobody in it — no 

 piazzas, areas, parlours, or places of parade. We were 

 awfully jammed at table, and nearly suffocated from the 

 closeness of the room. — At this point Spencer comes to 

 start out back of the house up to whatever we may find, 

 ... It grew steeper, and we wandered round for an hour 

 up muddy, long roads and paths to the summ-it, which gives 

 a fine view of the town beneath and the bay, as well as of 

 some distant mountains. The scenery is fine and clear, and 

 the air mild and very pleasant. . . . The place is quiet, and 

 both Spencer and myself slept well last night, having mos- 

 quito nets which were effectual — the first time, Spencer 

 says, he ever slept under one. — Back again from another 

 pull. This time it has been through the town, but it is 

 all the same. The mistral to-day has dried the mud, and 

 the walking is better, but I am utterly tired out. It 

 would seem as though this would either kill or cure. I am 

 abundantly conscious of the stupidity of all I have been 

 writing, but there seems nothing else to say or talk about. 



Spencer pegs away at his revising an hour or two a day, 

 but is greatly and continuously disgusted at not getting 

 letters, having had but one or two in a week from Eng- 

 land. As anything written within ten days after I started 



