Transcription:
Martinez, April 7, 1899. My dear Hittell, I have read the Bear book. on the whole I found it interesting. An introduction
fully explaining the time circumstances of your meeting Adams what became of him is very important There is a great deal of
vagueness all through the book which if you can clear up from your original notes or from information from his friends or
acquaintances will be a grand improvement. His main camp he says was on the Merced? - a North Fork 40 miles N.W. from Yosemite
Now he could not get half this distance from Yosemite in a N.W. direction on any branch of the Merced. 40 miles would take
him across the Tuolume on to the Slanislaws or nearly. It seems too there was a wagon road to this wild camp