WCP5038

Letter (WCP5038.5587)

[1]

Parkstone, Dorset.

Octr 30th. 1893

Dear Mr. Westermarck

From the maps of rain distribution in Africa in Stanford's Compendium, the dryest months in the Gorilla country seem to be January & February, & these would be probably the months of greatest fruit supply.)1 But in the regions close to the equator there is usually so much sunshine & the rain is so equally distributed that fruits are to found — green or ripe — all the year round.

I found the young sucking orangutan in may, that was about the 2nd or [2] 3rd month of the dry season in which fruits began to be plentiful2 & continued so till October, as far as I remember. There were however always showers.

The great man-like apes are I think confined to these equatorial regions on account of there being both continuous forest for protection & a continuous fruit supply for food. Probably the low & high grounds supply fruit at different seasons. Also the swamps & the mountains.

Yours very truly

Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

Edwd. Westermarck Esq.

1
At this point begin 2 lines of interlinear text , very faint and illegible.
2
The paragraph up until this point is underlined in pencil, and an end-of-inclusion mark follows the word plentiful.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP5038.5587)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Congerton, John [2019-12-17]

Published letter (WCP5038.5493)

[1]1 [p. 22]

Oct. 30th. 1893.

Dear Mr Westermarck

From the Maps of rain distribution in Africa in Stanford's Compendium, the dryest months in the Gorilla country seem to be January and February, and these would be probably the months of greatest fruit supply. But in the regions close to the equator there is usually so much sunshine and the rain is so equally distributed that fruits are to be found—green or ripe—all the year round.

I found the young sucking orang-utan in May, and that was about the 2nd or 3rd month of the dry season in which fruits began to be plentiful and continued so till October, as far as I remember. There were however always showers.

The great man-like apes are I think confined to these equatorial regions on account of there being both continuous forest for protection and a continuous fruit supply for food. Probably the low and high grounds supply fruit at different seasons. Also the swamps and the mountains.

Yours very truly

Alfred R. Wallace.

1
Editor Charles H. Smith's Note: Fourteenth of fourteen letters from Wallace to Edward Westermarck, concerning the writing of the latter's The History of Human Marriage. These were included in the article "Letters From Edward B. Tylor and Alfred Russel Wallace to Edward Westermarck; Ed. With Introductory Remarks Concerning the Publication of The History of Human Marriage" by K. Rob. V. Wikman that appeared in 1940 as Acta Academiae Aboensis Humaniora XIII.7. The Wallace letters make up the second half of the work. Note that there are several apparent minor editing errors in the source material that I have not bothered to correct.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Published letter (WCP5038.5493)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Smith, Charles Hyde [2013-02-06] Transcription checked by Catchpole, Caroline [2013-02-08]

Please cite as “WCP5038,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP5038