WCP3564

[1]

Rosehill, Dorking

August 4th, 1876

Dear Galton¹

In reply to your of August 20. I beg to say that I should be glad to prepare & deliver such a lecture as you propose,—but I do not quite see my way to making it at once good, as a lecture, and as affording materials for Geog. Mammals. The first would require a general sketch of facts and theories,—the other a more detailed ^{and formal, & therefore very dry} exposition of the facts.

You say nothing about the [2] length of the lecture, but I presume the part read need only form a portion of what w[oul]^d be printed.

Again as to time,—I could not promise any thing of the kind till next Spring, I think.

As to my maps I trusted wholly (except when I had personal knowledge) to Stanfords, who seemed to have all the materials & I thought were taking great care to get them accurate. As to the forests, there must of course [3] be much uncertainty as to what kind of country is to be classed as forest,—and on such a small scale, open tracts of considerable extent cannot be shown. In case of a second edition, however, I will ask you to make any corrections that seem necessary in the Map of Africa.

My book contains such a large accumulation of facts, that it would be difficult to give ^even the most important of them in a lecture. I suppose you would rather not [4] have much theory. How about the deduction as to former distribution of land & sea which I consider are of my most interesting results?

Believe me | Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

F. Galton Esq.