356 LIFE AT DOWN. jETAT. 33-45. [1847. 



presentation copy of the sixth edition of the ' Vestiges.' Some- 

 how I now feel perfectly convinced he is the author. He is 

 in France, and has written to me thence. 



C. Darwin to J. D. Hooker. 



Down, [1847 ?] 



... I am delighted to hear that Brongniart thought 

 Sigillaria aquatic, and that Binney considers coal a sort of 

 submarine peat. I would bet 5 to I that in twenty years 

 this will be generally admitted ; * and I do not care for 

 whatever the botanical difficulties or impossibilities may be. 

 If I could but persuade myself that Sigillaria and Co. had a 

 good range of depth, />. could live from 5 to 100 fathoms 

 under water, all difficulties of nearly all kinds would be re- 

 moved (for the simple fact of muddy ordinary shallow sea 

 implies proximity of land). [N.B. I am chuckling to think 

 how you are sneering all this time.] It is not much of a 

 difficulty, there not being shells with the coal, considering 

 how unfavourable deep mud is for most Mollusca, and that 

 shells would probably decay from the humic acid, as seems to 

 take place in peat and in the black moulds (as Lyell tells 

 me) of the Mississippi. So coal question settled Q. E. D. 

 Sneer away 1 



Many thanks for your welcome note from Cambridge, and I 

 am glad you like my alma mafer, which I despise heartily as 

 a place of education, but love from many most pleasant 

 recollections. . . . 



Thanks for your offer of the ' Phytologist ; ' I shall be very 

 much obliged for it, for^I do not suppose I should be able to 

 borrow it from any other quarter. I will not be set up too 

 much by your praise, but I do not believe I ever lost a book 

 or forgot to return it during a long lapse of time. Your 

 4 Webb ' is well wrapped up, and with your name in large 

 letters outside. 



* An unfulfilled prophecy. 



