
          to a number of unfortunate sick and crippled
volunteers. He had made himself also
sufficiently acquainted with astronomy, has
had the good fortune to carry safely an excellent
Barometer all the way with him and back , making
constant use of it - also other instruments -
and is altogether the best man that could be
sent west by Mr. Marcy. He and some of
his friends have already applied to him, but
if you would put your weight in the balance
too, you might do him good service.

Fendler is alive, I learn, but boxes sent
last April here, have not yet arrived.

I have got some collections from Monterey & Saltillo
but nothing else from Mexico yet.

I frequently wish to be nearer you and Gray, and
the large collections & libraries, but I think my
situation here is also good, in the center of
western life and enterprise.

I would be very willing to undertake some
family for flora, and thank you for your kind
offer, but I am entirely behind the [?]
of things I have undertaken, and can do nothing
more. My increasing professional business
leaves me little leasure - that is filled up
with botanical studies. I have here now Hooker's
the Munich, & Vienna collections of [C?], several    
        