THESE letters, as their style sufficiently indicates, were written without the remotest idea of publication. They appeared last year in the Leisure Hour at the request of its editor, and were so favourably received that I venture to present them to the public in a separate form, as a record of very interesting travelling experiences, and of a phase of pioneer life which is rapidly passing away.
I. L. B.
October 21, 1879.
Note to the second edition
FOR the benefit of other lady travellers, I wish to explain that my “Hawaiian riding dress” is the “American Lady's Mountain Dress,” a half-fitting jacket, a skirt reaching to the ankles, and full Turkish trousers gathered into frills falling over the boots, — a thoroughly serviceable and feminine costume for mountaineering and other rough travelling, as in the Alps or any other part of the world. I add this explanation to the prefatory note, together with a rough sketch of the costume[1], in consequence of an erroneous statement[2] in the Times of November 22d.
I.L.B.
November 27, 1879.
Note to the third edition
IN consequence of the unobserved omission of a date to my letters having been pointed out to me, I take this opportunity of stating that I travelled in Colorado in the autumn and early winter of 1873, on my way to England from the Sandwich Islands. The letters are a faithful picture of the country and state of society as it then was; but friends who have returned from the West within the last six months tell me that things are rapidly changing, that the frame house is replacing the log cabin, and that the footprints of elk and bighorn may be sought for in vain on the dewy slopes of Estes Park.
I.L.B.