WCP4080

[1]¹

[27 September 1857]²

[...] of May last,³ that my views on the order of succession of species were in accordance with your own, for I had begun to be a little disappointed that my paper⁴ had neither excited discussion nor even elicited opposition. The mere statement & illustration of the theory in that paper is of course but preliminary to an attempt at a detailed proof of it, the plan of which I have arranged, & in part written, but which of course requires much <research in English> libraries & collections, a labour which I look [manuscript missing].

[2] With regard to the black Jaguars always breeding inter se, it is of course a point not capable of proof, but the black & the spotted animals are generally confined to separate localities, & among the hundreds & thousands of the skins which are articles of commerce I have never heard of a particoloured one having occurred. I think there is a difference of form the black being the more slender & graceful animal.⁵ [manuscript missing].