Ɛpsilon

From J. D. Hooker   24 May 1867

Kew

May 24/67

Dear Darwin

I do not go to Paris till next Saty or Sunday (tomorrow week)1   I am so glad that Barkly’s letter pleased you—2 I always feel a happier & a better man when I have added a mite to your knowledge.

I do not share your objection to continental extension because you must extend it to all Islands in every ocean— It was the old objection to Lyellism that it must be applied to the most horrid convulsions,— the highest Mountains & so forth. I forget how you account for the chalk in the middle of Great continents except by deep ocean there— & the Limestone fossils at 19000 ft in the Himalaya surely show a much greater continental change since the Silurian than you admit.3

Do not break your heart over your book whatever you do.4

My friend Hodgson, who has elected to live in a state of benighted ignorance saw somewhere a request of Agassiz for information on Domesticated animals, & asked me to give the accompanying (sent by post) to him in Paris!.— H. does not know that Agassiz is in America!—& I have told him that it is better in your hands.5

I shall not fail to come at Gooseberry season6

Ever Yr aff | J D Hooker

1
Hooker refers to 1 or 2 June 1867. He had told CD that he would be returning to Paris at the end of May (see letter from J. D. Hooker, 17 May 1867 and n. 2).
4
Hooker refers to Variation. See letter to J. D. Hooker, [21 May 1867].
5
Hooker and Brian Houghton Hodgson had met in Darjeeling, India, in 1848 (R. Desmond 1999, pp. 107–8). The enclosure has not been identified, but see the letter to J. D. Hooker, 26 [May 1867] and n. 2. Louis Agassiz emigrated from Switzerland to the United States in 1846 (DAB). The request for information on domesticated animals has not been identified.
6
Hooker’s visit to Down during the gooseberry season was something of a tradition. See, for example, Correspondence vol. 13, letter from J. D. Hooker, [after 17 June 1865].

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5548,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5548