240 GEOLOGY [Chap. IX 



Letter 574 inclined to conjecture that plants of this great division must 

 have been largely developed in some isolated area, whence, 

 owing to geographical changes, they at last succeeded in 

 escaping, and spread quickly over the world. 1 But I fully 

 admit that this case is a great difficulty in the views which 

 I hold. Many as have been the wonderful discoveries in 

 Geology during the last half-century, I think none have 

 exceeded in interest your results with respect to the plants 

 which formerly existed in the Arctic regions. How I wish 

 that similar collections could be made in the Southern 

 hemisphere, for instance in Kerguelen's Land. 



The death of Sir C. Lyell is a great loss to science, but I 

 do not think to himself, for it was scarcely possible that he 

 could have retained his mental powers, and he would have 

 suffered dreadfully from their loss. The last time I saw him 

 he was speaking with the most lively interest about his last 

 visit to you, and I was grieved to hear from him a very poor 

 account of your health. I have been working for some time 

 on a special subject, namely insectivorous plants. I do not 

 know whether the subject will interest you, but when my 

 book is published I will have the pleasure of sending you 

 a copy. 



I am very much obliged for your photograph, and enclose 

 one of myself. 



To S. B. J. Skertchly. 



Letter March 2nd, 1878. 



574* 



It is the greatest possible satisfaction to a man nearly at 



the close of his career to believe that he has aided or stimu- 

 lated an able and energetic fellow-worker in the noble cause 

 of science. Therefore your letter has deeply gratified me. I 

 am writing this away from home, as my health failed, and I 

 was forced to rest ; and this will account for the delay in 

 answering your letter. No doubt on my return home I shall 

 find the memoir which you have kindly sent me. I shall 

 read it with much interest, as I have heard something of your 

 work from Prof. Geikie, and have read his admirable Ice Age? 



1 See Letters 395, 398. 



2 The Great Ice Age and its Relation to the Antiquity of Man : London, 

 1874. By James Geikie. 



