1858.] STRIPED HORSES. 469 



of the front legs, still more rarely a very faint transverse 

 shoulder-stripe like an ass. 



Is there any breed of Delamere forest ponies ? I have 

 found out little about ponies in these respects. Sir P. Eger- 

 ton has, I believe, some quite thoroughbred chestnut horses ; 

 have any of them the spinal stripe ? Mouse-coloured ponies, 

 or rather small horses, often have spinal and leg bars. So 

 have dun horses (by dun I mean real colour of cream mixed 

 with brown, bay, or chestnut). So have sometimes chestnuts, 

 but I have not yet got a case of spinal stripe in chestnut, race 

 horse, or in quite heavy cart-horse. Any fact of this nature 

 of such stripes in horses would be most useful to me. There 

 is a parallel case in the legs of the donkey, and I have col- 

 lected some most curious cases of stripes appearing in va- 

 rious crossed equine animals. I have also a large mass of 

 parallel facts in the breeds of pigeons about the wing bars. 

 I suspect it will throw light on the colour of the primeval 

 horse. So do help me if occasion turns up. ... My health 

 has been lately very bad from overwork, and on Tuesday I go 

 for a fortnight's hydropathy. My work is everlasting. Fare' 

 well. 



My dear Fox, I trust you are well. Farewell, 



C. DARWIN. 



C. Darwin to J. D. Hooker. 



Moor Park, Farnham [April 26th, 1858]. 



... I have just had the innermost cockles of my heart 

 rejoiced by a letter from Lyell. I said to him (or he to me) 

 that 'I believed from the character of the flora of the Azores, 

 that icebergs must have been stranded there ; and that I ex- 

 pected erratic boulders would be detected embedded between 

 the upheaved lava-beds ; and I got Lyell to write to Hartung 

 to ask, and now H. says my question explains what had 

 astounded him, viz., large boulders (and some polished) of 

 mica-schist, quartz, sandstone, &c., some embedded, and some 

 40 and 50 feet above the level of the sea, so that he had 



