From Charles Lyell   24 June 1831

Dear Henslow

I profited much by your hints & therefore shall continue to avail myself of your kind aid— I hope your brother in law is returned— Can he tell me exactly what is the fact about the want of reptiles in Ireland[.] Have they none of ours? which? Two whole days are always lost by the war office parcels those clerks I suppose (the lounging newspaper-reading of Canning) do not bestir themselves— Send by coach— I never grudge carriage if I gain one correction in a sketch or have the satisfaction of none being thought necessary—

I was very glad to hear of Mrs Henslow being well over her confinement.

The new Edinb. Rev ^w June 1831 — p. 336 says that cocoa nuts & other fruits cannot float till they are dead, & so cannot be drifted till they have lost power of germination" This is all fudge? Humboldt somewhere describes the upsetting of a boat canoe at Cumana & the boys swimming after the floating cocoa-nuts—

very truly y ^rs | Cha Lyell

Is not Herodotus's story of lions having inhabited Thrace & Macedonia given out? Did not Aristotle shew that he gave had no faith in it? | Friday