Down,
Beckenham, Kent.
Railway Station
Orpington. G.E.R.
June 5 76
My dear Wallace
I must have the pleasure of expressing to you my unbounded admiration of your book, tho' I have read only to page 184,— my object having been to do as little as possible while resting. I feel sure that you have laid a broad & safe foundation for all future work on Distribution. How [2] interesting it will be to see hereafter plants treated in strict relation to your views; & then all insects, pulmonate molluscs, and fresh water fishes, in greater detail than I suppose you have given to these lower animals. The point which has interested me most, but I do not say the most valuable point, is your protest against sinking imaginary continents in a quite reckless manner, as was started by Forbes, followed alas by Hooker [3] and caricatured by Wollaston & Murray. By the way the main impression which the latter author has left on my mind is his utter want of all scientific judgement. I have lifted up my voice against the above view with no avail, but I have no doubt that you will succeed, owing to your new arguments and the coloured chart. Of a special value, as it seems to me, is the conclusion that we must determine the areas, chiefly by the nature of the mammals.
[4] When I worked many years ago on this subject, I doubted much whether the now called Palaearctic & Nearctic regions ought to be separated; & I determined if I made another region that it should be Madagascar. I have therefore been able to appreciate the value of your evidence on these points.
What progress Palaeontology has made during the last 20 years; but if it advances at the same rate in the future, our views on the migration & birth place of the various groups will I fear be greatly altered I [one letter illegible crossed out] cannot feel quite easy about the Glacial period & the extinction of large Mammals, but I much hope that you are right. I think you will [5] have to modify your belief about the difficulty of dispersal of land molluscs; I was interrupted when beginning to experimentize on the just hatched young adhering to the feet of ground-roosting birds. I differ on one other point, viz in the belief that there must have existed a Tertiary Antarctic continent, from which various forms radiated to the Southern extremities of our present cont[6]inents. But I could go on scribbling for ever. You have written, as I believe, a grand & memorable work which will last for years as the foundation for all future treatises on Geographical Distribution.
My dear Wallace | Yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin [signature]
[7] P.S.
You have paid me the highest conceivable compliment, by what you say of your work in relation to my chapters on distribution in the Origin, and I heartily thank you for it.
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP1966.1856)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
[1] [p. 286]
Down, Beckenham, Kent. June 5, 1876.
My dear Wallace,— I must have the pleasure of expressing to you my unbounded admiration of your book,1,2 though I have read only to page 184 — my object having been to do as little as possible while resting. I feel sure that you have laid a broad and safe foundation for all future work on Distribution. How interesting it will be to see hereafter plants treated in strict relation to your views; and then all insects, pulmonate molluscs, and fresh-water fishes, in greater detail than I suppose you have given to these lower animals. The point which has interested me most, but I do not say the most valuable point, is your protest against sinking imaginary continents in a quite reckless manner, as was started by Forbes,3 followed, alas, by Hooker,4 and caricatured by Wollaston5 and Murray.6 By the way, the main impression which the latter author has left on my mind is his utter want of all scientific judgment. I have lifted up my voice against the above view with no avail, but I have no doubt that you will succeed, owing to your new arguments and the coloured chart. Of a special value, as it seems to me, is the conclusion that we must determine the areas chiefly by the nature of the mammals. When I worked many years ago on this subject, I doubted much whether the now-called Palearctic7 and Nearctic8 regions ought to be separated; and I determined if I made another region that it should be Madagascar. I have therefore been able to appreciate the value of your evidence on these points. What progress Palaeontology has made during the last 20 years! But if it advances at the same rate in the future, our views on the migration and birthplace of the various groups will, I fear, be greatly altered. I cannot feel quite easy about [2] [p. 287] the Glacial period and the extinction of large mammals, but I much hope that you are right. I think you will have to modify your belief about the difficulty of dispersal of land molluscs; I was interrupted when beginning to experimentise on the just-hatched young adhering to the feet of ground-roosting birds. I differ on one other point, viz. in the belief that there must have existed a Tertiary Antarctic continent, from which various forms radiated to the southern extremities of our present continents. But I could go on scribbling for ever. You have written, as I believe, a grand and memorable work, which will last for years as the foundation for all future treatises on Geographical Distribution. My dear Wallace, yours very sincerely, | CHARLES DARWIN.
P.S. You have paid me the highest conceivable compliment by what you say of your work in relation to my chapters on Distribution in the "Origin,"9 and I heartily thank you for it.
Status: Draft transcription [Published letter (WCP1966.6064)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP1966,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 26 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP1966