Physical description of Sikkim mountains.
Travelling through Kinchin snows.
Transported boulders.
Continues prior letter of this date. Has received CD’s [1202]. Thanks CD for saving his correspondence.
Sent "a yarn about species" in October mail.
Some "puerile" JDH letters printed in Athenæum.
Requests CD extract anything valuable from his letters to CD and Lyell for Athenæum.
CD’s complemental males in barnacles wonderful.
Warns CD to drop his battle about perpetuity of names in species descriptions.
JDH looking for a gardener for CD’s unusual needs.
JDH requests specimens from Miss [Sophy] Wedgwood.
Congratulations on Erasmus Darwin; likes CD’s part better than Ernst Krause’s.
Received false notice of Asa Gray’s death.
Gray and JDH engaged in comparing widely separated but floristically similar regions.
Argues against pension for Wallace because of his spiritualism; the underhanded way he brought about discussion of spiritualism at BAAS; his pocketing money from a bet on the sphericity of the earth; his lack of absolute poverty.
Pleasure at receiving CD’s scientific letters to JDH and Hodgson.
The H. Wedgwoods’ pecuniary loss.
Condolences at CD’s father’s death.
Rajah harasses JDH’s work. Lack of supplies, rain, malarial valleys, and landslips make going difficult. Cannot get into Tibet.
"Twenty species [of plants] here [Camp Sikkim] to one there [Tierra del Fuego?] always are asking me the vexed question, ""where do we come from?""."
From observation of terraces descending to steppes and plains of India, he thinks that the Himalayas were once a grand fiord coast.
Has information CD requested on Yangsma valley. JDH’s detailed hypothesis of origin of dam there. Does not agree with CD’s interpretation.
The debt of plant geography to voyages may be JDH’s topic at BAAS meeting [at Swansea].
Photographs from New Zealand forwarded.
CD partly right. JDH was calling "stratification" what CD calls "foliation". Answers CD’s question on cleavage foliation in Himalayas. Glacial action.
Charmed by CD’s Admiralty instructions on geology [in Manual of scientific enquiry (1849), Collected papers 1: 227–50], but complains he does not give prices of books and instruments he recommends.
Can Alphonse de Candolle see CD?
Asa Gray at Kew; will meet JDH in Italy in December.
Praise for Movement in plants, lately arrived.
Praise for Wallace’s Island life
and astonishment that he could be a spiritualist.
Differs with Wallace on age of SW. Australian flora. JDH ascribes its peculiarities to isolation by an inland sea.
Huxley has persuaded JDH that the Wallace memorial may not be hopeless; JDH still has misgivings about Wallace’s spiritualism but will follow CD’s and Huxley’s decision.
Quality of Frank’s work merits F.R.S., but quantity could defer speedy election. Will advise best strategy.
Wants to propose Frank for F.R.S. now, with election in 1882.
Spoke too harshly about CD’s involvement in nomenclatural reform.
JDH used to think CD "too prone to theoretical considerations about species", hence was pleased CD took up a difficult group like barnacles. CD’s theories have progressed but JDH not converted. Sikkim has not cleared up his doubts about CD’s doctrines.
Argument with Falconer.
Has struggled for months with complexity of structure and distribution of palms for Genera plantarum.
At 63 JDH still works hard to support his family. Many friends have died. Memories of times past spent with CD lift his pessimism.
Outlines address to York BAAS meeting on history of geographical distribution. Organising theme: advancement in this science based on ideas enunciated by scientific voyagers. Asks CD’s advice.
Working on York BAAS address; finds CD’s comments helpful. JDH writes detailed response and expansion.
Is making final preparations for his address [at York BAAS meeting] and questions CD on specific points.
