I859-] ENCOURAGEMENT. 523 



has cost me s^ much labour that I almost hate it. On Octo- 

 ber 3rd I start for Ilkley, but shall take three days for the 

 journey ! It is so late that we shall not take a house ; but I 

 go there alone for three or four weeks, then return home for 

 H week and go to Moor Park for three or four weeks, and 

 then I shall get a moderate spell of hydropathy : and I in- 

 tend, if I can keep to my resolution, of being idle this winter. 

 But I fear ennui will be as bad as a bad stomach. , 



C. Darwin to C. Lyell. 



Down, Sept. 25th [1859]. 



MY DEAR LYELL, I send by this post four corrected 

 sheets. I have altered the sentence about the Eocene fauna 

 being beaten by recent, thanks to your remark. But I 

 imagined that it would have been clear that I supposed the 

 climate to be nearly similar ; you do not doubt, I imagine, 

 that the climate of the eocene and recent periods in different 

 parts of the world could be matched. Not that I think cli- 

 mate nearly so important as most naturalists seem to think. 

 In my opinion no error is more mischievous than this. 



I was very glad to find that Hooker, who read over, in 

 MS., my Geographical chapters, quite agreed in the view of 

 the greater importance of organic relations. I should like 

 you to consider p. 77 and reflect on the case of any organism 

 in the midst of its range. 



I shall be curious hereafter to hear what you think of dis- 

 tribution during the glacial and preceding warmer periods. 

 I am so glad you do not think the Chapter on the Imperfec- 

 tion of the Geological Record exaggerated ; I was more fear- 

 ful about this chapter than about any part. 



Embryology in Chapter VIII. is one of my strongest points 

 I think. But I must, not bore you by running on. My mind 

 is so wearisomely full of the subject. 



I do thank you for your eulogy at Aberdeen. I have 

 been so wearied and exhausted of late that I have for months 

 doubted whether I have not been throwing away time and 



