DARWIN 13 



This is the most connected piece of criticism in the notes, 

 and I therefore give it verbatim. My general reply is printed 

 in " More Letters," iii. p. 22. Of course I carefully considered 

 all Darwin's suggestions and facts in later editions of my 

 book, and made use of several of them. The last, as above 

 quoted, I shall refer to again when considering the few import- 

 ant matters as to which I arrived at different conclusions from 

 Darwin. But I will first give another letter, two months later, 

 in which he recurs to the same subject. 



"Down, January 2, 1881. 



" My Dear Wallace, 



" The case which you give is a very striking one, 

 and I had overlooked it in Nature; 1 but I remain as great a 

 heretic as ever. Any supposition seems to me more probable 

 than that the seeds of plants should have been blown from 

 the mountains of Abyssinia, or other central mountains of 

 Africa, to the mountains of Madagascar. It seems to me 

 almost infinitely more probable that Madagascar extended 

 far to the south during the glacial period and that the S. 

 hemisphere was, according to Croll, then more temperate; 

 and that the whole of Africa was then peopled with some 

 temperate forms, which crossed chiefly by agency of birds 

 and sea-currents, and some few by the wind, from the shores 

 of Africa to Madagascar, subsequently ascending to the 

 mountains. 



" How lamentable it is that two men should take such 

 widely different views, with the same facts before them; but 

 this seems to be almost regularly our case, and much do I 

 regret it. I am fairly well, but always feel half dead with 

 fatigue. I heard but an indifferent account of your health 

 some time ago, but trust that you are now somewhat stronger. 



" Believe me, my dear Wallace, 

 " Yours very sincerely, 



"Ch. Darwin." 



1 Nature, December 9, 1880. The substance of this article by Mr. 

 Baker, of Kew, is given in " More Letters," iii. p. 25, in a footnote. 



