WCP1464

To Clement Reid, Esq.) Parkstone, Dorset. Nov.[ember] 18th. 1894.

My dear Clement Reid¹

The days of Noah seem come back to us! But at last the glass is rising & there seems a prospect of fine weather. You must have been deluged & the Bourne at Blashenwell have risen to its Neolithic magnitude! Your remarks about the snails are very interesting & I hope it will work out all right. I have called on Dr. Turner & he has been here & seen the "old boy's" bones. He says he — the boy — must have been about 9 or 10 years old. I suggested that he (Turner) should ask Pitt-Rivers² if he would get the whole cranium put together as far as possible, for the Dorchester Museum, for which purpose I would give all our bones.

But the great, the grand, the long-expected, the prophecied — discovery has at last been made — Miocene or Old Pliocene Man in India!!!!!!!! Good worked flints found in situ by the Palaeontologist to the Geol.[ological] Survey of India! It is in a ferruginous conglomerate lying beneath 4000 feet of Pliocene Strata & containing Hipporherium &c. But perhaps you have seen the art.[icle]³ in Nat.[ural] Science describing it, by Rupert Jones⁴ — who, very properly, accepts it! Of course we want the bones, but we have got the flints, & they may follow. Hurrah! for the missing link!

Excuse more. Yours very faithfully Alfred R. Wallace.

To Clement Reid, Esq.) Parkstone, Dorset. Nov. 18th. 1894

My dear Clement Reid

The days of Noah seem come back to us! But at last the glass is rising & there seems a prospect of fine weather. You must have been deluged & the Bourne at Blashenwell have risen to its Neolithic magnitude! Your remarks about the snails are very interesting & I hope it will work out all right. I have called on Dr. Turner & he has been here & seen the "old boy’s" bones. He says he — the boy — must have been about 9 or 10 years old. I suggested that he (Turner) should ask Pitt-Rivers if he would get the whole cranium put together as far as possible, for the Dorchester Museum, for which purpose I would give all our bones.

But the great, the grand, the long-expected, the prophecied, — discovery has at last been made — Miocene or Old Pliocene Man in India!!!!!!!!! Good worked flints found in situ by the Palaeontologist to the Geol.[ogical] Survey of India! It is in a ferruginous conglomerate lying beneath 4000 feet of Pliocene Strata & containing Hippotherius &c. But perhaps you have seen the art. in Nat. Science describing it, by Rupert Jones-who, very properly, accepts it! OF course we want the bones, but we have got the flints, & they may follow. Hurrah! for the missing link!

Excuse more. | Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace

[1] [p. 62]

Parkstone, Dorset. November 18, 1894.

My dear Clement Reid, —... The great, the grand, and long-expected, the prophesied discovery has at last been made — Miocene¹ or Old Pliocene² Man in India ! ! ! Good worked flints found in situ by the palaeontologist to the Geological Survey of India!³ It is in a ferruginous conglomerate⁴ lying beneath 4,000 feet of Pliocene strata and containing hippotherium,⁵ etc. But perhaps you have seen the article in Natural Science⁶ describing it, by Rupert Jones,⁷ who, very properly, accepts it! Of course we want the bones, but we have got the flints, and they may follow. Hurrah for the missing link! Excuse more. — Yours very faithfully, | ALFRED R. WALLACE.