Text Online
From:
Alfred Russel Wallace
To:
Benjamin W. Austin
Date:
5 March 1887
Source of text:
Edinburgh University Library: AAF, 8.7.69
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Alfred Russel Wallace Correspondence Project
Showing 21–40 of 69 items
No summary available.
From Niagara Falls (Canada), describing the partly frozen falls and surrounding area; ferns entirely absent, probably taken by tourists, every rock and stump covered with (carved) names.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
Describing the countryside around Cincinnati and the spring flowers in the woods, with botanical and common names; flower roots sent to Miss Jekyll; instructions to let the house (in England) for up to six months if possible; money earned from lectures, lectures scheduled in Bloomington Indiana, Sioux City Iowa and Kansas but no others so far; possibility of travelling to California if a lecture can be given in San Francisco; Diphtheria; enclosing press cuttings with instructions to keep any sent together as they may be useful material for a book; enclosing a Canadian stamp and a hunting story [press cutting] for Willie (neither present). Press cutting headlined "Colors in animals. Their uses clearly explained" reporting on ARW's lecture at Smith & Nixon's Hall, Cincinnati; annotated in ARW's hand "Cincinnati Enquirer Ap 23/87 A bad lamp! Which went out in the mid of the lecture!!!"; Press cutting from The Post undated (c. Apr 1887) headlined "Dr. Wallace. A scientist of world-wide reputation in Cincinnati" with brief details of ARW, motioning his opinion of Henry George in relation to land monopoly and his forthcoming lecture at Smith & Nixon's Hall.
No summary available.
ARW describes to Mitten the flora, vegetation, geology and landscapes he has travelled through in North America including the Mississippi at St Louis, Cincinnati, Kansas, Sioux City (the latter he compares to the Downs between Clayton and Lewes). ARW invites Mitten to join him, giving approximate costs of travel and living expenses.
No summary available.
No summary available.
Urges Mitten to join him in June or July at Manitou Springs in the Rocky Mountains, has met a lady botanist who says plants magnificent; detailed instructions on route from Quebec or Montreal, advice on luggage, clothing, plant boxes and sphagnum, travel by steamer and train, sleeping car accommodation and cost versus hotels; will write to wife Annie from San Francisco.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
Description of American travels; the best thing that he has seen are the pine forests and the majestic Sequoias. Wry comments on Americans. A splendid country to travel in, but a poor country to live in. Discusses weather conditions.
Instructs Annie how to complete ARW's tax return in his absence. ARW also chastises Annie for not dating her previous two letters to him and states that their daughter has picked up this bad habit, but their son Willie, "shows the hereditary business instinct of the male animal by duly dating"! ARW bemoans the US government postal weight restrictions affecting his posting of plants back to England. ARW concludes his letter by stating how miserable California is and that "nowhere in America yet have I seen a place I should like to live in".
The weather and the seasons and that ARW has not seen a single place he should like to live in. He writes of "Big Trees" including Redwoods and tells of his plans to visit Santa Cruz and Lake Tahoe before coming home in late August. ARW also mentions that he has been lecturing on Spiritualism in San Francisco.
Plans to go to the Rocky Mountains; will look out for medicinal plants for Mitten.