Has arranged a trip to the U. S. with Cambridge friends; believes it would be much jollier if Frank could go too.
JDH writes to his wife, Frances Hooker, to inform her that he is in a camp at the 'axis' of a high ridge in the Atlas Mountains. The party travelled from Morocco to the place where [John] Washington made an attempted ascent, as described in the JOURNAL OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. The 'Caid' or chief of that part of the mountains hates Christians & tried to persuade them not to go further, however they climbed to 5000 feet & could see enough to establish that it was not a god route to the peaks that Washington had been trying to reach. They then went further West. Their progress that way was hampered by the mules being unable to continue for more than a few hours in the rugged terrain & they were unable to reach the snowline there. Instead they travelled to the province of Reraia on the headwaters of the Oued El Fist [elsewhere spelt Enfisk, possibly referring to Tensift River], & then further south to their current position at 3-4000 feet above sea level in the district of Sheik El Graoui. El Graoui has taken them to the lowest snow bed, at 8000 feet. They will next make camp at the highest village, 7000 feet, & use it as a base for botanising higher. They will then try an ascent of the great peaks to the West en route to Mogadore [Essaouira]. The mountains are inhabited by a race called the Shelloos [Shilhah], to whom JDH is administering medical treatment. JDH saw the first sign of ancient ice action in a moraine at 6000 feet but there were no other indications of glaciation in the surroundings. He describes the landscape. He characterises the vegetation as 'mainly Spanish' & notes the presence of: Cisti, Lentisk, Arbutus, Phillyrea, Roses, Honey-suckle, Willow, Ash, Oak, Laurustinus Juniper, Callitris, Walnut, Olive, Chamerops & Elder. Also many species of unspecified herbaceous plants including new ones. Above 6000 feet: wild Gooseberry, harsh grass, many herbaceous Compositae, 2 or 3 Saxifrages, Cruciferae & Leguminosae. They have seen remarkably few ferns.
Recommends [W. M. Williams] The fuel of the sun [1870] as remarkably illuminating about physical astronomy. Williams solves the problem of duration of sun’s heat in "a most satisfactory manner".
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
George [Darwin] plans a trip to America and would like FD to go [see 7757]. CD will gladly pay whole cost if the trip will not interfere with FD’s medical work.
Is pleased GL is to translate the Journal of researches into Swedish.
Disagrees with CD and especially with Lubbock and McLennan about communal marriage. [See Descent 2: 361–3.]
He is waiting to hear about the requirements for the MB examination before considering the possible trip to north America.
Interested in W. Hepworth Dixon’s Free Russia, but does not know "whether he is to be trusted".
VOK’s hard work in palaeontology will prepare him for future original investigations.
About John Hampden.
Gives cost of printing photographs [for Expression] by the Woodbury process.
Thanks for present of FWF’s The witness of history [1871].
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
Thanks for references about dogs. Fears work will not allow him to deal with subject again. Heartily subscribes to what correspondent says about qualities of dogs. Loves his "with all my heart".
Criticises a book [W. M. Williams, The fuel of the sun (1870)] whose author does not understand thermodynamics, spectrum analysis, and W. Thomson’s papers.
CD will pay for the American trip if it takes place.
Asks whether FD can help him understand the eyes of cephalopods; is the structure the same as in the Vertebrata and are the parts developed from homologous layers of skin?
Has been pleased by a recent review.
Postscript: Is thinking of a cheap edition of the Origin [1872] in which he hopes to answer St George Mivart’s criticisms.
Asks FD whether he can get some references to good papers on cephalapod eyes.