Alfred Russel Wallace 



surprised at no notice having been taken of your paper in the 

 Annals, I cannot say that I am ; for so very few naturalists 

 care for anything beyond the mere description of species. 

 But you must not suppose that your paper has not been 

 attended to : two very good men, Sir 0. Lyell, and Mr. 

 E. Blyth at Calcutta, specially called my attention to it. 

 Though agreeing with you on your conclusions in the 

 paper, I believe I go much further than you; but it is too 

 long a subject to enter on my speculative notions. I have 

 not yet seen your paper on distribution of animals in the 

 Aru Islands : I shall read it with the utmost interest ; for 

 I think that the most interesting quarter of the whole globe 

 in respect to distribution; and I have long been very im- 

 perfectly trying to collect data from the Malay Archipelago. 

 I shall be quite prepared to subscribe to your doctrine of 

 subsidence : indeed from the quite independent evidence of 

 the coral reefs I coloured my original map in my Coral 

 volumes colours [sic'] of the Aru Islands as one of subsidence, 

 but got frightened and left it uncoloured. But I can see 

 that you are inclined to go mucJi further than I am in 

 regard to the former connection of oceanic islands with 

 continents. Ever since poor E. Forbes propounded this 

 doctrine, it has been eagerly followed; and Hooker elabor- 

 ately discusses the former connection of all the Antarctic 

 islands and New Zealand and South America. About a 

 year ago I discussed the subject much with Lyell and 

 Hooker (for I shall have to treat of it) and wrote out my 

 arguments in opposition; but you will be glad to hear that 

 neither Lyell nor Hooker thought much of my arguments; 

 nevertheless, for once in my life I dare withstand the almost 

 preternatural sagacity of Lyell. You ask about land -shells 

 on islands far distant from continents : Madeira has a few 

 identical with those of Europe, and here the evidence is 

 really good, as some of them are sub-fossil. In the Pacific 



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