Letter from Robert Ridrway to John Muir, 1900 Feb 15 .

• Main Author: Ridrway, Robert
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1900
• Subjects: Great Glacier; Keeler; Mt. Carmel; glacier; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/4236; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5252&context=muir-correspondence

[4]I sent you also, separately, a copy of my last paper on trees of the lower Wabash Valley. Am sorry that I haven't a copy of the first paper to send you. Hoping to have the pleasure of receiving a letter from you, I am, with kind regardsVery [truly?] yoursRobert Ridgway[1]Brookland, D.C.February 15, 1900.Dear Mr. Muir:The receipt of a copy of Mr. Keeler's charming little book on Calfornian birds which you have had the kindness to send me, has reminded me that I have not kept my promise to send you some photographs of Indiana trees. These were promised you in a letter which I wrote you not very long after my return from the Alaskan trip, though I do not know whether you received my letter or not, not having heard from you. Perhaps you had been waiting for the pictures before writing. Well, I have many02665[5]List of photographs sent to Mr. Muir.1. Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis). Gibson Co., Indiana, opposite Mt. Carmel, Illinois. Circumference, above "swell", 30 ft., at ground 42 ft; height (mean of several measurements, by triangulation, by shadow, and by dendrometer), 160 ft.; spread of top 134 x 112 ft. 2. Sycamore. A tall-shafted specimen in Richland Co., Illinois. 3. Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera). Knox Co., Indiana. Circumference, above "swell", 18 ft. (not an unusually large specimen. There are few now of this size, but [formerly?] there were many very much larger.) 4. Tulip Trees. The larger one has had top broken off by wind. The smaller one remarkable for its slender growth. (Knox Co., Indiana.) 5. Sycamore, almost completely covered by Virginia Creeper (Ampelopsis virginica). (Gibson Co., Ind.)02665 [2]excuses to offer for the delay, the principal one being that I have had so much to do that I realy have not had time to get them ready. My negatives were all more or less defective and consequentl the prints all required touching up. Having been laid up at home for two days with a severe attack of acute indigestion (something quite new to me), I have found time today, during my convalescence, to put on the finishing touches, and now have them ready to send. They don't amount to much, as photographs, but are of interest as representing objects which are now no more. Mr. Keeler had already sent me a copy of his book (which I duly acknowledged), but I am none the less pleased to receive this second [3]copy, particularly since you have so kindly inscribed your autograph and kind regards on the fly leaf. In last evening's Washington Star I read an article (from the Scientific Monthly) giving n account of the havoc wrought by the earthquake along the coast of Alaska, and was pained to note the partial destruction of the great glacier. especially the peerless "Muir", which, now that I cannot see it any more I think of with feelings very different from those I had when so near it last summer, and I have often regretted that I did not see more of it. How interesting it would be to go back there and see all the changes that the earthquake has wrought! Do you think the accounts have been exaggerated?[6]6. Upland forest, Knox Co., Indiana. 7. Bottomland forest, Gibson Co., Indiana (immediately opposite Mt. Carmel, Illinois). (The photographs are numbered on reverse side)