WCP1741

[1]¹

Parkstone, Dorset

June 7th 1897

My dear Sclater²

Thanks for your paper on "The Geog. Dist. of Marine Mammals".³ It is very interesting & suggestive, especially with regard to the absence of Otaria from the Atlantic requiring a ^southern barrier across that ocean. I hardly think we can say that such a barrier was necessary without a fuller knowledge of the conditions which would limit their range. It seems to me probable that the low alluvial shores & muddy water of the [2] east coast of S. Temperate America as compared with the west may be the reason why they have extended so much farther on the west coast. In They probably reached the N. Pacific by way of the Moluccas & Philippines to Japan, and round to California.

It must never be forgotten that a complete land-barrier between S. America & S. Africa would certainly have led to a far greater similarity of the plants and animals of those two regions than actually exists; And the barrier, to have been [3] effective in limiting the distribution of seals must have been not only complete but of very long duration.

I want to know the present Address of A. O. Hume,⁴ but leave us recent List of the Fellows of the Zool. Soc. Will you kindly order a copy of the latest list⁵ to be sent me.

Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

Dr. P. L. Sclater F.R.S.