WCP2979

Letter (WCP2979.2869)

[1]

Colesbourne

Cheltenham

13 April [19]10

Dear Mr Wallace

No trouble would be too much for me, if I could really help you; but my own observations in collecting have been confirmed to the living Lepidoptera.

I have collected within the arctic circle in Norway and in the Altai mountains of C[entral]. Asia, and the Rocky mountains of Alberta & [2] Montana, where the climatic conditions at high elevations as well as the characteristic species are truly arctic, halt these places, I would say that [1 word illeg.] Lepidoptera are as a general rule numerous than in the alps of central Europe & in the high Himalayas & moths still less so.

I am therefore inclined to agree with you that berries & living insects form in such localities.

[3] A much more important item in the food of of land birds than Lepidoptera larvae, and in the places where butterflies were most numerous birds are not as a rule abundant.

If there is any other point in which I can help you please ask me. I must congratulate you on your remarkable handwriting which neither time nor work [4] seems to have affected. I can now hardly read Sir Joseph Hookers1 writing though his mind & eyesight are still good — or were so when he came here last year. It is the same with other aged friends, & I hope it is a sign that you will enjoy some years of health, & ability to delight others by your works.

Believe me | Yours very truly | H J Elwes [signature]2

Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton (1817-19111). British botanist.

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British Museum stamp.

Please cite as “WCP2979,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 28 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2979