I find Cambridge, in vacation, as quiet as possible,—most people away. The president’s family were at home, and unaffectedly glad to see me; but several of them, including Miss Susan, who makes drawings for me, are about to set out on Monday for Lake Champlain, Montreal, and Quebec; to be absent nearly to the time that I hope to leave here again; for I find, from the way the president takes it up, that I shall have no difficulty in obtaining the sanction of the corporation to my proposed mountain tour. But of that I shall know certainly in a day or two. In that case I shall hope to see you again in the latter part of August, perhaps as soon as the middle....
Dr.—— came here the day I returned. He still garnishes, as ever, his lack of ideas with a deliberate profundity of words.
I found on my return a letter from my brother, announcing the approaching marriage of my youngest sister; which event took place, I suppose, on the 20th inst., the day I left New York. Had I received the letter in New York, I should have arranged to be present on the occasion. I wonder if my turn will ever come!
TO W. J. HOOKER.
Cambridge, 11th August, 1843.
I leave home this afternoon for New York, on my way to the Alleghany Mountains in the north of Virginia, where I expect to meet my excellent friend Mr. Sullivant, of Ohio. We hope to trace the more westerly ranges of the mountains down to North Carolina and Tennessee, to revisit my old ground in Ashe County, etc., and to continue our journey farther south into Georgia, coming out at Augusta on the Savannah River; thence I may go to Charleston and return by water. But if time allows I shall perhaps run through upper Georgia and Alabama, to the Tennessee River, down that to the Ohio, and thence home. My chief object is to obtain live plants and seeds; we shall be too late in the season for the best botanizing, yet I think we shall be in the best time for Compositæ. Mr. Sullivant will turn his attention primarily to the Musci; but we shall let nothing escape. Thus at last I may hope to be somewhat useful to you as a correspondent for your Garden.
I learn within a few days that Ross’s expedition has been heard of from Rio. Doubtless Joseph will have reached home before this letter arrives, and I may congratulate him—and yourself—upon his most gratifying success, which has laid a broad and sure foundation for his scientific eminence. His Flora Antarctica must be of the very highest interest and importance.
TO JOHN TORREY.
Asheville, Saturday, September 30th, 1843.
My dear Friend,—Your two letters which awaited my arrival—the one at Jefferson, the other at Asheville—were indeed refreshing. Our long journey through Virginia brought us behind our estimated time, and hurried the later and more interesting part of our operations; for Sullivant was getting very impatient, as I wrote in my last, just as we were hurrying away from Jefferson.