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illegible 1981 Yosemite Valley Dec 24th 71 Dear Cross. I have just written a line to Maxwell of course you are in lively
remember- ance as one third of the pleasant illegible of the Hoffman excursion. I suppose that you are now bravely housed
in Merrie England, in looking back upon the many broad fields of terrestrial grandeur beauty, you behold our Yosemite sharply
defined, peerless companionless, would that you might see our mountains now, they are glorious with the generous snows of
four days storm, every dome spire, every nitch tablet, has its share of the pure jewels of winter storm. Since you were here
I have rambled the upper mtns incessantly untill driven down by deep snows, I am engaged in the study of the ancient glacial
system of this region, am no longer bound to Hutchings or his mill, I will likely go on with my explorations with reference
to the dead Yosemite ice rivers for several years may write a mono- gram for the Boston Academy of Sciences. I was in the
great Tuolumne canon a short time ago of wh Hetch Hetchy valley forms a part the Hetch Hetchy occupies exactly the same pos-
ition upon the Tuolumne, that the Yosemite does upon the Merced, both vallies were formed at the same period by the same forces,
of course