We are very thankful to you, Pamela, for the papers you send.  We have
received half a dozen or more, and, next to letters, they are the most
welcome visitors we have. 
                              Write oftener, Pamela. 
                                             Yr.  Brother
          
                                                  Sam.

The “Cousin Jim” mentioned in this letter is the original of the character of Colonel Sellers.  Whatever Mark Twain’s later opinion of Cousin Jim Lampton’s financial genius may have been, he seems to have respected it at this time.

More than three months pass until we have another letter, and in that time the mining fever had become well seated.  Mark Twain himself was full of the Sellers optimism, and it was bound to overflow, fortify as he would against it.

He met with little enough encouragement.  With three companions, in midwinter, he made a mining excursion to the much exploited Humboldt region, returning empty-handed after a month or two of hard experience.  This is the trip picturesquely described in Chapters XXVII to XXXIII of Roughing It.—­[It is set down historically in Mark Twain ‘A Biography.’  Harper & brothers.]—­He, mentions the Humboldt in his next letter, but does not confess his failure.

To Mrs. Jane Clemens and Mrs. Moffett, in St. Louis: 

Carsoncity, Feb. 8, 1862.  My Dear mother and sister,—­By George Pamela, I begin to fear that I have invoked a Spirit of some kind or other which I will find some difficulty in laying.  I wasn’t much terrified by your growing inclinations, but when you begin to call presentiments to your aid, I confess that I “weaken.”  Mr. Moffett is right, as I said before—­and I am not much afraid of his going wrong.  Men are easily dealt with—­but when you get the women started, you are in for it, you know.  But I have decided on two things, viz:  Any of you, or all of you, may live in California, for that is the Garden of Eden reproduced—­but you shall never live in Nevada; and secondly, none of you, save Mr. Moffett, shall ever cross the Plains.  If you were only going to Pike’s Peak, a little matter of 700 miles from St. Jo, you might take the coach, and I wouldn’t say a word.  But I consider it over 2,000 miles from St. Jo to Carson, and the first 6 or 800 miles is mere Fourth of July, compared to the balance of the route.  But Lord bless you, a man enjoys every foot of it.  If you ever come here or to California, it must be by sea.  Mr. Moffett must come by overland coach, though, by all means.  He would consider it the jolliest little trip he ever took in his life.  Either June, July, or August are the proper months to make the journey in.  He could not suffer from heat, and three or four heavy army blankets would make the cold nights comfortable.  If the coach were full of passengers, two good blankets would probably be sufficient.  If he comes, and brings plenty of money, and fails to invest it to his entire satisfaction; I will prophesy no more.