466 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION [Chap. VI 



Letter 354 that during the coldest part of Glacial period, Greenland must 

 have been quite depopulated. Like a dog to his vomit, I 

 cannot help going back and leaning to accidental means of 

 transport by ice and currents. How curious also is the case 

 of Iceland. What a splendid paper you have made of the 

 subject. When we meet I must ask you how much you 

 attribute richness of flora of Lapland to mere climate ; it 

 seems to me very marvellous that this point should have been 

 a sort of focus of radiation ; if, however, it is unnaturally rich, 

 i.e. contains more species than it ought to do for its latitude, 

 in comparison with the other Arctic regions, would it not 

 thus falsely seem a focus of radiation ? But 1 shall here- 

 after have to go over and over again your paper ; at present 

 I am quite muddy on the subject. How very odd, on any 

 view, the relation of Greenland to the mountains of E. N. 

 America ; this looks as if there had been wholesale extinction 

 in E. N. America. But I must not run on. By the way, I 

 find Link in 1820 speculated on relation of Alpine and Arctic 

 plants being due to former colder climate, which he attributed 

 to higher mountains cutting off the warm southern winds. 



Letter 355 J. D. Hooker to C. Darwin. 



Kew, Nov. 2nd, 1862. 



Did I tell you how deeply pleased I was with Gray's notice 

 of my Arctic essay ? 1 It was awfully good of him, for I am sure 

 he must have seen several blunders. He tells me that 

 Dr. Dawson 2 is down on me, and I have a very nice lecture 

 on Arctic and Alpine plants from Dr. D., with a critique 

 on the Arctic essay — which he did not see till afterwards. 

 He has found some mares' nests in my essay, and one very 

 venial blunder in the tables — he seems to hate Darwinism — 

 he accuses me of overlooking the geological facts, and 

 dwells much on my overlooking subsidence of temperate 

 America during Glacial period — and my asserting a sub- 

 sidence of Arctic America, which never entered into my head. 

 I wish, however, if it would not make your head ache too 

 much, you would just look over my first three pages, and tell 



1 American Journal of Science and Arts, XXXIV., and in Gray's 

 Scientific Papers, Vol. I., p. 122. 



' A letter (No. 144) by Sir J. D. Hooker, dated Nov. 7th, 1862, on 

 this subject occurs in the Evolutionary section, Vol. I., p. 209. 



