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First draft of letter - in note-book 59 (38) Jan. 02 Cap. A. F. Rodgers, U.S. Coast and Geo. Survey, S. F. Dear Cap.
Rodgers: Your letter of last month fall of good wishes and of auld lang syne stirred many pleasant memories. I was glad
to get word of Eimbeck whom I remember as a friendly good-natured man who rode a good-natured horse called Dan. The horse
liked everything but camels, as you everything but snakes. Eimbeck, it seems, is still at his much loved business of lecturing.
Do you remember his Carson Desert lecture on lenses and light one night when the stars danced wildly in the little theodolite,
though it had always behaved well enough until Carson Desert whiskey got into his eyes? And do you remember those wonderful
mirages which made Indians on horseback, mule teams and prairie schooners, gulleys, claybanks, and a few sage bushes into
well stocked fields and gardens or populous villages? But above things strange and amusing many a fine lesson was learned
on those Great Basin mountains, plains, and valleys. I look back to the days spent with you in that gray land as among the
most profitable of my life. My dear Rodgers, that you and yours may be blessed with many more happy years is the sincere
wish of Your friend, J. M. I start to-day for the Colorado Grand Canyon to see it in its winter garb. The weather, I
guess, will be cold on the high (7000) Arizona plateau. Colder than we found the Salt Lake desert in November? when you taught
me on going to bed to toast my pillow at the sage-brush camp-fire.02890