er of the 10th of this
month awaiting me here. The _Siberia_ that brought it is a new Cunarder,
and made an unusually slow passage out. Probably because it would be
dangerous to work new machinery too fast on the Atlantic.

_Thursday, 30th._

My cold still sticks to me. The heat of the railway cars and their
unventilated condition invariably brings it back when I think it going.
This morning my head is as stuffed and heavy as ever! A superb sledge
and four horses have been offered me for a ride, but I am afraid to take
it, lest I should make the "true American catarrh" worse, and should get
hoarse. So I am going to give Osgood another "breather" on foot instead.

The communication with New York is not interrupted, so we consider the
zealous Dolby all right. You may imagine what his work is, when you hear
that he goes three times to every place we visit. Firstly, to look at
the hall, arrange the numberings, and make five hundred acquaintances,
whom he immediately calls by their christian-names; secondly, to sell
the tickets--a very nice business, requiring great tact and temper;
thirdly, with me. He will probably turn up at Washington next Sunday,
but only for a little while; for as soon as I am on the platform on
Monday night, he will start away again, probably to be seen no more
until we pass through New York in the middle of February.

[Sidenote: Mr. Samuel Cartwright]

BALTIMORE, _Wednesday, Jan. 29th, 1868._

MY DEAR CARTWRIGHT,

As I promised to report myself to you from this side of the Atlantic,
and as I have some leisure this morning, I am going to lighten my
conscience by keeping my word.

I am going on at a great pace and with immense success. Next week, at
Washington, I shall, please God, have got through half my readings. The
remaining half are all arranged, and they will carry me into the third
week of April. It is very hard work, but it is brilliantly paid. The
changes that I find in the country generally (this place is the least
changed of any I have yet seen) exceed my utmost expectations. I had
been in New York a couple of days before I began to recognise it at all;
and the handsomest part of Boston was a black swamp when I saw it
five-and-twenty years ago. Considerable advances, too, have been made
socially. Strange to say, the railways and railway arrangements (both
exceedingly defective) seem to have stood