144 EVOLUTION [Chap. Ill 



Letter 96 sporting work that game has become wilder in this country? 

 I wish I could get any sort of proof of the fact, for your 

 explanation seems to me equally ingenious and probable. 

 I have myself witnessed in South America a nearly parallel 

 [case] with that which you mention in regard to the reindeer 

 in Spitsbergen, with the Ccrvus campestris of La Plata. It 

 feared neither man nor the sound of shot of a rifle, but 

 was terrified at the sight of a man on horseback ; everyone in 

 that country always riding. As you arc so great a sportsman, 

 perhaps you will kindly look to one very trifling point for me, 

 as my neighbours here think it too absurd to notice — namely, 

 whether the feet of birds are dirty, whether a few grains 

 of dirt do not adhere occasionally to their feet. I especially 

 want to know how this is in the case of birds like herons and 

 waders, which stalk in the mud. You will guess that this 

 relates to dispersal of seeds, which is one of my greatest 

 difficulties. My health is very indifferent, and I am seldom 

 able to attend the scientific meetings, but I sincerely hope that 

 I may some time have the pleasure of meeting you. 



Pray accept my cordial thanks for your very kind letter. 



Letter 97, To G. H. K. Thwaites. 



Down, March 21st [i860]. 



I thank you very sincerely for your letter, and am much 

 pleased that you go a little way with me. You will think it 

 presumptuous, but I am well convinced from my own mental 

 experience that if you keep the subject at all before your 

 mind you will ultimately go further. The present volume is 

 a mere abstract, and there are great omissions. One main 

 one, which I have rectified in the foreign editions, is an 

 explanation (which has satisfied Lyell, who made the same 

 objection with you) why many forms do not progress or 

 advance (and I quite agree about some retrograding). I 

 have also a MS. discussion on beauty ; but do you really 

 suppose that for instance Diatomacese 1 were created beautiful 

 that man, after millions of generations, should admire them 

 through the microscope ? I should attribute most of such 



1 Thwaites (181 1-82) published several papers on the Diatomaceas 

 (" On Conjugation in the Diatomaceae," Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 

 Vol. XX., 1847, pp. 9-11,343-4; " Further Observations on the Diato- 

 macete," loc. at., 1848, p. 161). See Life and Letters II., p. 292. 



