WCP3357

[1]

Parkstone, Dorset.¹

Dec.[ember] 14th. 1891

Dear Mr. Tylor

I send you this fragment of stone axe for your inspection. Its whole interest depends on the condition under which it was found. My friend A.C. Swinton² & the late Mr. Mackworth Shore³ were working on the Maryborough Gold Field ^Victoria in 1865⁵, & in a hole 5 feet deep in the hard gravel called "cement" by the miners, this fragment was found. Mr. Swinton says he was holding the rope & bucket watching every stroke of his friend's pick, when a stroke loosened the weapon, & he immediately jumped down to examine it. It was found [2] a few inches above the bed-rock of metamorphosed schist, & below a layer of hard iron-sandstone a foot thick. The broken surfaces still show the gravel.

What age the deposit may be the local geologists alone can tell, but it could hardly be less than our paleolithic gravels, although the weapon is ground. Please return when done with.

No doubt Westerwarck⁵ is a thorough Darwinian, & so am I, but we both differ from Darwin⁴ on some point; & when he puts in his table of contents such headings as, — "The untenableness of Mr. Darwin's theory" (of sexual selection)" — "Rejection of Mr. Darwin's opinion on the connection between [3] love & beauty" — "Rejection of his theory of the origin of human races" — and on all these points he argues strongly, & I think soundly against Darwinian views, I do not see why he, or anyone, should object to that difference being referred to. On the special point of promiscuity Darwin allowed himself to be persuaded by what he thought good authorities, & Westermarck says (p. 117) — "Yet according to the same naturalist, it seems certain, from the evidence of Morgan⁵ &c &c. that almost promiscuous intercourse at a later time, was extremely common throughout the world."

[4] And this Westermarck elaborately argues against. But of course if he wishes to have Darwin's name left out he can do so in a new edition.

Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

Dr. E. B. Tylor.

P.S. Has anything been discovered or written since about the clothed figures ^{& carvings} of high, almost European, type, discovered in 1838 by Sir Geo. Grey⁶ in caves in N. W. Australia. They indicate a semi-civilised race.

A.R.W. [signature]