Transcription:
14 Aug 1897? Union Club, Victoria, B.C. My dear Wanda and Helen: I have just been writing to Mamma and must write a little
love letter to my dear babies. I sent you a box of lovely Paton hemlock cones and a spray of larch last Sunday from Vancouver.
The hemlock is what we used to call Williamson Spruce. I got the cones near the largest of the Canada glaciers in the Selkirk
Mountains in a flowery, rocky, boggy, ferny forest, and the larch or tamarack I found on the shore of Lake Agnes in the Rocky
Mountains, on the east side of the range. I never saw this kind of larch before -neither did Sargent. It is a curious tree,
pale green, small, and throws its branches out in every direction. Bryanthus, Linnaea, and many other charming darlings of
the cool high mountains are growing beneath it. Again and again I said you and your mother must make this trip. It is easily
made when the cars are not crowded. I met some friends up there of Col. Sellers and a whole lot of people that knew your papa.
I feel pretty tired and took cold on the horrid cars, but soon I hope to be quite well again. Cheer up Grandma and believe
me, Ever your loving father, JOHN MUIR And may God keep you safe and well in His love. 02331