We have been out from the settlements ten days; are camped beside a clear brawling trout stream, in a valley with bold, craggy granite mountains around us and in the midst of the finest pine and fir forest in the world: all the family, our house being closed. We are forty miles from my office, 25 from the nearest village & 12 from the nearest cart path—on the Yo Semite trail. We live mainly on trout & mutton—several flocks having been sent up here from the plains. We share our water priveledge with a few Indian families—perfect savages scarcely at all touched by civilization: armed with bows & arrows & entirely without firearms or whiskey. They supply us with trout—but are persuaded to do so with some difficulty, having already got more money from us than they care to lug about. We have had one black tailed deer & one grizzly-bear, supplied by a white hunter. The bear is simply poor, coarse beef. We are five miles from the largest grove of the big trees of California, & I have ridden to it several times. It is several hundred feet higher than our camp—which is not much if any short of 6000 ft above sea. It is one of the most impressive sights I ever saw—coming over one like St. Peter’s.

I have gained health since I last wrote you very much, & here, with nothing to do, feel very well, and every day better. I expect to go back to the Estate soon for a week or two—leaving the rest here, afterwards to go on with them to Yo Semite.

Just before I came out, all the papers &c. for the Reading Room came. Thank you, heartily. Your letter about them came in due course.

I have read over the whole file of Round Table, since 1st January and find it much better than I had expected. It fails most in what it chiefly undertakes, pure criticism, there being an affectation of candor & temperance in its moderate criticisms, & flippancy & smartness in its severity—yet on the whole it is well-moved. I do not mean, of course, that its opinions are sound (to me) but the motive is excellent & the arrangment, style & editorship is respectable. I hope it will fail to meet the expectations of its capitalists & that you will buy it, which is the best [241]luck I can hope for it & “the cause”. I think it good to build upon.

It is too far—to talk of public affairs. We are fearfully anxious—our last news the rebels raiding in Maryland & Grant doing nothing that we can see before Petersburg. The financial question is the gravest, & of that I can make nothing. I long to know what you are thinking. The two lines of your last letter about the situation of Grant, was by far the most considerate & respectable comment upon it & gave me more insight of the future, than all I have read or heard.

The Estate is not yet paying expenses. I am building a mill & when that is done I hope our production will be increased $25,000 a month and we shall then turn the corner. I hope you will have seen my Annual Report which was printed in New York, & I presume may be obtained at the office. I am surprised to see the stock going up with a good deal of steadiness. I suppose it is only corresponding to expansion of currency, but the stediness is indicative of confidence of holders. I think it is about right. Did you get a treatise of mine (ms.) on California stocks? The mining stocks here have fallen on an average more than one half since I wrote, but the stocks I recommended have not fallen on an average at all. I have made from 2 to 3 per ct a month on all my investments. Since my family arrived, however, I have not been able to increase them.

Mary has written three times to your wife & has had no reply. She addresd 37 E. 19th St. She sends her love & wants to know [how] Lawrence is?