l6o THE WRITING OF THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' [1859. 



been expecting proofs from you. But now, having nothing 

 particular to do, I will fly a note, though I have nothing 

 particular to say or ask. Indeed, how can a man have any- 

 thing to say, who spends every day in correcting accursed 

 proofs ; and such proofs ! I have fairly to blacken them, and 

 fasten slips of paper on, so miserable have I found the style. 

 You say that you dreamt that my book was entertaining', that 

 dream is pretty well over with me, and I begin to fear that 

 the public will find it intolerably dry and perplexing. But I 

 will never give up that a better man could have made a 

 splendid book out of the materials. I was glad to hear about 

 Prestwich's paper.* My doubt has been (and I see Wright 

 has inserted the same in the 'Athenaeum') whether the pieces 

 of flint are really tools ; their numbers make me doubt, and 

 when I formerly looked at Boucher de Perthe's drawings, I 

 came to the conclusion that they were angular fragments 

 broken by ice action. 



Did crossing the Acacia do any good ? I am so hard 

 worked, that I can make no experiments. I have got only 

 to 150 pages in first proof. 



Adios, my dear Hooker, ever yours, 



C. DARWIN. 



C. Darwin to J. Murray. 



Down, July 2$th [1859]. 



MY DEAR SIR, I write to say that five sheets are returned 

 to the printers ready to strike off, and two more sheets require 

 only a revise ; so that I presume you will soon have to decide 

 what number of copies to print off. 



I am quite incapable of forming any opinion. I think I 

 have got the style fairly good and clear, with infinite trouble. 



* Mr. Prestwich wrote on the aiimals in '.France. Proc. *R. Soc., 

 occurrence of flint instruments as- 1859. 

 sociated with the remains of extinct 



