
          Washington DC
Oct 17th

Dear Sir

My report is finished & ready for
transmission to the War Dept. I am only waiting to
receive yours which I hope you will be able to send me
by the 25th at furthest & sooner if possible.

I would be glad to hear what you think of the
collection. It was impossible to find scientific men
in New Mexico where the expedition was organised and
the collections were therefore made by persons who had [crossed out: ?]
little experience in such matters. I established a
rule that every thing should be collected as I knew that
at the conclusion of the survey it would be as easy to
reject what was superfluous as it would be difficult
to replace what was deficient and I also considered
it as interesting to know that the flora of the route
was the same as that it was different from other
localities. The collectors in the other departments
of Science were made in the same way and have been
very successful. I would therefore like to know how it is with
the Botanical Collection.

I am very truly
John Pope

Dr John Torrey.

(over)

        