lly's
acquaintance, and they both, thinking I must be dull all alone at the
hotel, insisted on my dining with them daily during my stay. The
doctor soon put me all right, and I spent a happy week wandering in
the neighbourhood, climbing the Rocky Mountains, and enjoying society
at his house in the evening. Surely one may dilate, even in print, on
the qualities of individuals of the fair sex if it be all praise.
Mrs. Solly is an American lady, and her, among others, I had in my
mind when I dilated on the intellectual and broad views, with
charitable tendencies, of the best class of our transatlantic
sisters. With a high order of intellect, and a capacity for
appreciation such as is granted to few women, Mrs. Solly was, in two
words, one of the most charming companions I have ever met. _On dit_,
and the idea is a nice one, that in many married lives the wife
strives to, and often attains the husband's level. Sometimes, more
rarely, it is the other way, and the woman's intellect soars above
the man's, while he may, or may not, try and climb so high. In either
case, if even perfect success is not attained, the intercourse
between the two benefits the weaker vessel, be that male or female.
But the above theory did not, in either form, hold good in those I
wish to portray. Both were highly intellectual, yet were they quite
different. Their individuality had not been affected, as far as I
could judge, by marriage. Perhaps the companionship begotten thus is
the most charming of any in marital life, but it is rare.

Of the daughter I need only say that she was a fit daughter for such
parents, and seemed to me to partake of the individual excellences of
both, while the English ideas received from the father, the American
from the mother, made a very charming diversity in her individual
character.

Doctor Solly has an extensive practice in Colorado Springs and the
neighbourhood, and is reputed to be, I should think justly, the
first medical man there. What he says, therefore, on the advantages
of the Sanitarium deserves every attention, the more so that he
honestly points out, in more than one place, the individual
conditions which are more likely to receive harm than good from a
residence on such high, dry table-land.

I will now proceed to make extracts from the combined book of Mrs.
Dunbar and Doctor Solly, and as, in a medical point of view, it
explains much, I will first set out the preface to Doctor Solly's
work _in ext