Alfred Russel Wallace 



allowing me to read it. Had I read it some months ago I 

 should have profited by it for my forthcoming volume. But 

 my two chapters on this subject are in type ; and though not 

 yet corrected, I am so wearied out and weak in health that 

 I am fully resolved not to add one word, and merely improve 

 style. So you will* see that my views are nearly the same with 

 yours, and you may rely on it that not one word shall be 

 altered owing to my having read your ideas. Are you aware 

 that Mr. W. Earl published several years ago the view of 

 distribution of animals in the Malay Archipelago in rela- 

 tion to the depth of the sea between the islands ? I was 

 much struck with this, and have been in habit of noting all 

 facts on distribution in the Archipelago and elsewhere in 

 this relation. I have been led to conclude that there has 

 been a good deal of naturalisation in the different Malay 

 islands, and which I have thought to certain extent would 

 account for anomalies. Timor has been my greatest puzzle. 

 What do you say to the peculiar Felis there ? I wish that 

 you had visited Timor : it has been asserted that a fossil 

 mastodon or elephant's tooth (I forget which) had been 

 found there, which would be a grand fact. I was aware that 

 Celebes was very peculiar ; but the relation to Africa is quite 

 new to me and marvellous, and almost passes belief. It is as 

 anomalous as the relation of plants in South-West Australia 

 to the Cape of Good Hope. 



I differ wholly from you on colonisation of oceanic islands, 

 but you will have everyone else on your side. I quite agree 

 with respect to all islands not situated far in ocean. I quite 

 agree on little occasional interna vigation between lands when 

 once pretty well stocked with inhabitants, but think this does 

 not apply to rising and ill-stocked islands. 



Are you aware that annually birds are blown to Madeira, 

 to Azores (and to Bermuda from America). I wish I had 

 given fuller abstract of my reasons for not believing in 



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