316 LETTERS TO PROFESSOR WALLACE [CHAP. xxvi. 



February 4, 1901. 



I feel sure you will be pleased to hear that this morning 

 I sent Messrs. West, Newman & Co. all that I believe is 

 needed for my present Annual Report, excepting for com- 

 pletion of Index; and I have really begun " Reminiscences." 

 Will not my best way be to take any subjects that I think 

 I have enough material for, and work them up just as I 

 think they might go to press ? Thus you would see how 

 you like the writing and suggest improvements, and there 

 would be something, if you please, to show a publisher. 

 Turning to your letter I think that if at your very best 

 leisure you would kindly let me have the parcel of MS. 

 which you were good enough to take for safe custody it 

 would help me now. 



How dreary the past week has been with our national 

 sorrow and all the anxieties. I hope we may be more 

 cheerful now. 



February 8, 1901. 



Your beautifully secured parcel has arrived safely, and I 

 have locked it up carefully in my safe, with a very legible 

 inscription that the contents are the property of Prof. 

 Wallace, University of Edinburgh. There is nothing like 

 making sure, in case of as people say "anything happen- 

 ing" ! I should like to think that this mass of documents 

 which I have been accumulating should pass to your hands. 



I hope the work for your lecture * on the twelfth prox. is 

 getting on quite to your liking. It is always a great pleasure 

 to me to hear your plans are prospering. 



February 14, 1901. 



It has been very much on my conscience that I did not 

 say a word in my hasty letter about your beautiful and 

 valuable present. 2 How very pretty it must be, and a very 

 great pleasure to yourself as a kindly acknowledgment. 



About the " Reminiscences " what you suggest about 

 typewriting is just what I should like, but I did not care 

 to trust MS. here. Before parleying with the typewriters, 

 I should like very much indeed to read to you all the 

 papers that I can get ready before the ninth. I feel a 

 little anxious about the new style of writing. 



February 21, 1901. 

 I have made up a good bit on " birth, childhood, and 



1 A paper on " Agriculture in South Africa," read before the Royal 

 Colonial Institute on I2th of March, 1901. 



2 A silver tea service of Indian work presented in recognition of 

 a public service. 



