Transcription:
Kodiak, Alaska, September 10, 1899. Prof. John Muir, Martinez, Cal, My Dear Sir:- The mail boat yesterday brought me
the two volumes that you sent me. Will you accept my hearty thanks for your great kindness? You may be sure that it has been
appreciated very much indeed. I have had time to merely glance over The Mountains of California but I know that I shall enjoy
it, I will prize it especially because it is the gift of the author as I think I told you that I would never have come to
Alaska had it not been for your writings. It will always bring to mind the few days spent at Kodiak by the Harriman Expedition
. I have written to a party in Cook's Inlet concerning some baskets of spruce bark and by this same mail I received word
that some would be shipped me in the next schooner coming this way. I shall try to see that you get a specimen of the work
this winter. I will also see that you get the leaves and blossoms in the spring as requested. We have had a magnificent summer
here - the finest weather I ever experienced anywhere and it is still nice. I am hoping that this winter will be as enjoyable
as was the one I have spent here. If such will be the case I will leave here convinced that it is impossible to 02620