1844.] 'VESTIGES OF CREATION.' 301 



C. Darwin to W. D. Fox. 



[Down, September 5, 1843.] 



Monday morning. 



My dear Fox, — When I sent off the glacier paper, I was 

 just going out and so had no time to write. I hope your 

 friend will enjoy (and I wish you were going there with him) 

 his tour as much as I did. It was a kind of geological novel. 

 But your friend must have patience, for he will not get a 

 good glacial eye for a few days. Murchison and Count Key- 

 serling rushed through North Wales the same auiumn and 

 could see nothing except the effects of rain trickling over 

 the rocks ! I cross-examined Murchison a little, and evi- 

 dently saw he had looked carefully at nothing. I feel certain 

 about the glacier-effects in North Wales. Get up your steam, 

 if this weather lasts, and have a ramble in Wales ; its glorious 

 scenery must do every one's heart and body good. I wish I 

 had energy to come to Delamere and go with you ; but as 

 you observe, you might as well ask St. Paul's. Whenever I 

 give myself a trip, it shall be, I think, to Scotland, to hunt 

 for more parallel roads. My marine theory for these roads 

 was for a time knocked on the head by Agassiz ice-work, but 

 it is now reviving again. . . . 



Farewell, — we are getting nearly finished — almost all the 

 workmen gone, and the gravel laying down on the walks. 

 Ave Maria ! how the money does go. There are twice as 

 many temptations to extravagance in the country compared 

 with London. Adios. 



Yours, 



C. Darwin. 



C. Darwin to J. D. Hooker. 



Down [1844?]. 



.... I have also read the ' Vestiges,' * but have been 

 somewhat less amused at it than you appear to have been : 



* * The Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation ' was published 

 anonymously in 1844, and is confidently believed to have been written by 



