WCP2029

Letter (WCP2029.1919)

[1]1

53 Harley St.

Cavendish Sq[ua]re.

8th Feb. [1864]2

My dear Sir

I should like in my Bath address3 to introduce two or three sentences, I shall not have room for more as I am limited to one hour, on your observations of the two provinces of animal life, the Indian Archipelago province & the New Guinea one, on both sides of certain straits, & the probable connection of two distinct races of man being also separated or nearly so, by the same boundary line.4

[2] I am only writing a rough sketch of my Address at present in order that I may write to various correspondents in this country or on the Continent, who may send me the facts & references of w[hic]h I stand in need. Having done this, I shall put the manuscript aside for several months, by w[hic]h time the Geographical or Ethnological5 may perhaps have given us a good abstract of your observations & speculations.

[3] But in the mean time you might perhaps tell me where I could find some notice of what you have said, w[hic]h I may afterwards improve.

believe me | my dear sir | ver.[?] tr[ul]y[?] yrs | Cha[rles] Lyell [signature]

1
Page 1 is numbered 8 by the repository. Every second subsequent page has a consecutive handwritten number written in the upper right-hand corner of the page.
2
"1864" is written in pencil, possibly in ARW's hand, below Lyell's incomplete date.
3
Charles Lyell's address as newly-elected President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at its meeting in Bath, 14 Sep. 1864. Lyell, C. 1865. Address of the President, Sir Charles Lyell... Report of the Thirty-fourth meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science; held at Bath in September 1864. London: John Murray. lx-lxiv.
4
Presumably referring to Wallace, A. R. 1863. On the Physical Geography of the Malay Archipelago. Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 33: 217-234 (and map). (Read at the RGS meeting of 8 June, 1863).
5
Either a reference to the anticipated report of the Geography and Ethnology Section of the BAAS at the upcoming 1864 meeting, see note 3; or to The Royal Geographical Society, and to The Ethnological Society of London.

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP2029.1919)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Cooper, Rod [2013-02-21] Transcription checked by Lucas, Paula [2019-12-20]

Please cite as “WCP2029,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2029