To J. D. Hooker   30 March [1869]¹

My dear Hooker

Many thanks for sight of the letters.² The account of the islet off Mauritius is most wonderful. I wish I c^d believe that the island was formed of upheaved sandstone, as it w^d. indicate former non-volcanic land.— I do not know whether Sir H. B is a geologist; but until some one, who is, sees the sandstone, I must believe that a steep conical islet, near a volcanic island, formed of friable sandstone, with the beds rising in inclination to the summit, consists of tuff.

You ought to urge Sir H. B. to have every plant, shell, insect & reptile collected. On any view, former continent, or waifs & strays (which I rather lean to, as snake & reptile different) the case is most interesting.—³

You are a real good man to come here on the 17^th—⁴

I thought Huxleys address wonderfully brilliant,—some of his sayings most happy.— I wrote indeed to him to say that it was a shame that any one, man sh^d. have the power to write so many brilliant essays.—⁵ I do not think it right to make a class of Evolutionists, as distinct from Uniformitarians, simply because they are ready to speculate on first origin of our planet.— I think he has here sacrificed reality to make a striking point.⁶

Yours affect^y | C. Darwin

Henrietta is a little better, & comes down daily.—⁷

Judging from Report in Gard. Chron. how splendidly Bentham has come out on the Descent of Species: I shall be very much interested in reading it in larger type in our Journal.—⁸