246 DARWIN'S LETTERS TO R. TRIMEN 



19. 



Nov. 13th [1871] Down, 



Beckenham, Kent. 

 My dear Mr Trim en 



I write one line to say how sorry I am not to see you 

 before your return to the Cape,^ which I presume will 

 be soon. But I cannot get my head steady enough to 

 see anyone. I have just returned from a visit to my 

 sister for a week, but I was forced to spend nearly all 

 the day in my bed-room. — 



I read with much interest some little time ago your 

 paper on Geographical Distribution of Beetles; and 

 agreed, I believe, with all your general remarks.^ — 



I wish you all success in your future researches and 

 remain 



Yours very sincerely 

 Ch. Darwin 



If on the point of starting do not trouble yourself to 

 answer this. — 



' The letter was received Jan. 11, 1872, after Trimen had 

 returned to the Cape. 



' The paper referred to is : 



Notes on the Geographical Distribution and Dispersion of Insects ; 

 chiefly in reference to a paper by Mr. Andrew Murray, F.L.S., ' on the 

 Geographical Relations of the chief Coleopterous Faunae ' — By Roland 

 Trimen, F.L.S., &c.-Lmn. Soc. Journal.— Zool. xii (1871), 276-84. 



Murray in a very dogmatic way had in his elaborate memoir 

 endeavoured to account for the greater part of the difficulties 

 presented by the known existing distribution of animals and 

 plants over the globe by the simple explanation of ' continuity of 

 soil at some former period '. Trimen in his paper insisted on the 

 more important methods of dispersal always at work, and traversed 

 several of the author's statements, especially as regards oceanic 

 islands, which had been treated by Murray as obviously surviving 

 portions of otherwise vanished continental lands. 



