128 THE COMING [CH. 



Hooker for discussions on Botany, and Huxley for 

 Zoology. 



For twenty years Darwin had ' collected facts on 

 a wholesale scale, more especially with respect to 

 domesticated productions, by printed enquiries, by 

 conversations with skilful breeders and gardeners, 

 and by extensive reading.' ' When,' he added, ' I see 

 the list of books of all kinds which I read and 

 abstracted, including whole series of Journals and 

 Transactions, I am surprised at my industry 131 / In 

 September 1854 the Barnacle work was finished and 

 10,000 specimens sent out of the house and distributed, 

 and then he devoted himself to arranging his 'huge 

 pile of notes, to observing and experimenting in 

 relation to the transmutation of species.' 



It was early in 1856 when this work had been 

 completed, that, again urged by Lyell, he actually 

 commenced writing his book. It was planned as a 

 work on a considerable scale and, if finished, would 

 have reached dimensions three or four tunes as 

 great as did eventually the Origin of Species. 

 Working steadily and continuously he had got as far 

 as Chapter X, completing more than one half the 

 book, when as he says Wallace's letter and essay came 

 * like a bolt from the blue.' 



Oppressed by illness, anxiety and perplexity, as 

 we have seen that Darwin was at the time, he 

 fortunately consented to leave matters though with 



