1859-1S63] OWEN 133 



Down, [Dec] 27th [1859]. Letter 87 



Owen wrote to me to ask for the reference to Gift. 1 As 

 my own notes for the late chapters are all in chaos, I 

 bethought me who was the most trustworthy man of all 

 others to look for references, and I answered myself, " Of 

 course Lyell." In the {Principles of Geology\ edition of 1833, 

 Vol. III., ch. xi., p. 144, you will find the reference to Gift 

 in the Edinburgh New Phil. Journal, No. XX., p. 304. 2 You 

 will also find that you were greatly struck with the fact 

 itself, 3 which I had quite forgotten. I copied the passage, 

 and sent it to Owen. Why I gave in some detail references 

 to my own work is that Owen (not the first occasion with 

 respect to myself and others) quietly ignores my having 

 ever generalised on the subject, and makes a great fuss 

 on more than one occasion at having discovered the law of 

 succession. In fact, this law, with the Galapagos distribu- 

 tion, first turned my mind on the origin of species. My own 

 references are [to the Naturalist's Voyage] : 



Large 8vo, ed. 1839, Murray, ed. 1845, 



p. 210. p. 173. On succession, 



p. 153. pp. 131-32. On splitting up of old 



geographical provinces. 



Long before Owen published I had in MS. worked out the 

 succession of types in the Old World (as I remember telling 

 Sedgwick, who of course disbelieved it). 



Since receiving your last letter on Hooker, I have read his 

 introduction as far as p. xxiv, 4 where the Australian flora 

 begins, and this latter part I liked most in the proofs. It is 

 a magnificent essay. I doubt slightly about some assertions, 

 or rather should have liked more facts — as, for instance, 

 in regard to species varying most on the confines of their 



1 William Clift (1775 — 1849), Conservator of the Museum of the Royal 

 College of Surgeons. 



2 The correct reference to Clift's " Report " on fossil bones from New 

 Holland is Edinburgh New Phil. Journal, 1831, p. 394. 



3 This refers to the discovery of recent and fossil species of animals 

 in an Australian cave-breccia. Mr. Clift is quoted as having identified 

 one of the bones, which was much larger than the rest, as that of a 

 hippopotamus. 



* On the Flora of Australia, etc.; Icing an Introductory Essay to the 

 Flora of Tasmania: London, 1859. 



