18591863] BATES 5 TRAVELS 215 



Sir C. Lyell told me he had not any formal agreements. I Letter 148 

 am heartily glad to hear that your book is progressing. Could 

 you find me some place, even a footnote (though these are 

 in nine cases out of ten objectionable), where you could state, 

 as fully as your materials permit, all the facts about similar 

 varieties pairing, at a guess how many you caught, and how 

 many now in your collection ? I look at this fact as very 

 important ; if not in your book, put it somewhere else, or let 

 me have cases. 



I entirely agree with you on the enormous advantage of 

 thoroughly studying one group. 



I really have no criticism to make. 1 Style seems to me 

 very good and clear ; but I much regret that in the title 

 or opening passage you did not blow a loud trumpet about 

 what you were going to show. Perhaps the paper would 

 have been better more divided into sections with headings. 

 Perhaps you might have given somewhere rather more of a 

 summary on the progress of segregation of varieties, and not 

 referred your readers to the descriptive part, excepting such 

 readers as wanted minute detail. But these are trifles : I 

 consider your paper as a most admirable production in every 

 way. Whenever I come to variation under natural conditions 

 (my head for months has been exclusively occupied with 

 domestic varieties), I shall have to study and re-study your 

 paper, and no doubt shall then have to plague you with 

 questions. I am heartily glad to hear that you are well. I 

 have been compelled to write in a hurry ; so excuse me. 



To T. H. Huxley. Letter 149 



Down, Dec. 7th [1862]. 



I was on the point of adding to an order to Williams 

 & Norgate for your Lectures 2 when they arrived, and much 

 obliged I am. I have read them with interest, and they seem 

 to me very good for this purpose and capitally written, as is 

 everything which you write. 1 suppose every book nowadays 



1 Mr. Bates' paper on mimetic butterflies was read before the Linnean 

 Society, Nov. 2ist, 1861, and published in the Lhm, Soc. Trans., XXIII., 

 1862, p. 495, under the title of "Contributions to an Insect Fauna of 

 the Amazon Valley." 



2 A Course of Six Lectures to Working Men, published in six 

 pamphlets by Hardwicke, and later as a book. See Letter 156. 



