
          by a pine barren, far as you could walk in two days
 your eye rested on the same monotone scene - save a
 few [a?] on a swamp or the border of a stream - flowers
 you may suppose were not scattered very profusely
 on a soil that produced but one kind of tree. I flattered
 myself that when I should get to this place I would
 be enabled to send you a fine box of specimens, but
 I find that pine barren is almost as fashionable here
 as at Tampa - however in [?] towns I will gather
 every thing I can scrape, like a flower, and
 will then probably make as a sufficient number to
 fill a little box. Mineralogical Specimens, these
 are literally none. Indeed it would do my heart
 good to see even a few of those [crossed out: little] pebbles I used to
 tread upon so carelessly in the north, little thinking
 I could ever feel their loss - if they should be basics out
 of sight. I will try to send you some of the "queerest"
 looking insects that I meet with and most heartily
 do I wish there were fewer of these troublesome little specimens
 in this region.


 We are free in this remote part [crossed out: section]
 of the United States, from the alarm that seems to pervade
 the North - in regard to the cholera. A consciousness
 that it is under the control of the Supreme Being, renders
 me tranquil and unworried concerning its probable course
 for the future. I saw in a number of the NY [New York] Morning
 Courier & Enquirer - of 27th or 31st July - some curious remarks
        