He continues the letter : " I have in this country three 

 children, Alexander, Peggy and Isabella; the oldest is now 

 nine years old and can read and write well. You will have 

 a long letter from me next spring if God spares my health. 

 I have written this scrawl small, in order to be enclosed in 

 your husband's letter. Remember me to all your little, dear 

 family. May God bless you. Farewell, and believe me to 

 be, with compliments to all the family, 

 " Mv dear and loving sister, 



" Your affectionate brother, 



" Alexander Ross/'' 



FROM THE FOOTHILLS. 



Foot of Rocky Mountains, 

 Head of Columbia River, 



February 4, 1824. 

 My Dear Brother and Sister. 



An opportunity now offering for persons in this country 

 to address their friends in Scotland, I avail myself of the 

 chance. Your letter dated from Turriff, the 23rd of March, 

 1821, was the last I have had from you, and from my father 

 I have had none since January, 1819. Since that period 

 this is my third to you, and to my father, whom I also write 

 at this time, it is my fifth since I had any from him. Con- 

 sider then, how anxious I must feel to hear from one and all 



of those who are so dear to me It is necessary 



for letters coining to this country that they reach London in 

 February, or they will run the risk of being a year longer 



on their passage thither I left Fort J^ez Percys, 



where I had been for nearly six years, stationary I may say, 

 and proceeded to the head waters of the great Columbia, be- 



