Correspondence on Biology, etc. 



theory. The manner in which you have given Darwin the 

 whole credit of the theory of Natural Selection is very 

 handsome, but if anyone else had done it without allusion 

 to your papers it would have been wrong. . . . With many 

 thanks for your most admirable paper, believe me, my dear 

 Sir, ever very truly yours, Cha. Lybll. 



Sir C. Ltell to A. R. Wallace 



73 Harley Street. March 19, 1867. 



Dear Mr. Wallace, — I am citing your two papers in my 

 second volume of the new edition of the ^' Principles " — 

 that on the Physical Geography of the Malay Archipelago, 

 1863, and the other on Varieties of Man in ditto, 1864. I 

 am somewhat confounded with the marked line which you 

 draw between the two provinces on each side of the Straits 

 of Lombok. It seems to me that Darwin and Hooker have 

 scarcely given sufficient weight to the object^ion which it 

 affords to some of their arguments. First, in regard to 

 continental extension, if these straits could form such a 

 barrier, it would seem as if nothing short of a land com- 

 munication could do much towards fusing together two 

 distinct faunas and floras. But here comes the question 

 — are there any land-quadrupeds in Bali or in Lombok ? 

 I think you told me little was known of the plants, but 

 perhaps you know something of the insects. It is impos- 

 sible that birds of long flight crossing over should not 

 have conveyed the seeds and eggs of some plants, insects, 

 moUusca, etc. Then the currents would not be idle, and 

 during such an eruption as that of Tomboro in Sumbawa 

 all sorts of disturbances, aerial, aquatic and terrestrial, 

 would have scattered animals and plants. 



When I first wrote, thirty-five years ago, I attached 

 great importance to preoccupancy, and fancied that a 

 body of indigenous plants already fitted for every avail - 



19 



