| Darwin Correspondence Project

My dear Hooker

I am pleased at what you say of my Ch.—¹ You have not attacked it nearly so much as I feared you would. You do not seem to have detected many errors.— It was nearly all written from memory, & hence I was particularly fearful; it would have been better, if the whole had first been carefully written out, & abstracted afterwards.²

I look at it as morally certain that it must include much error in some of its general views.— I will just run over a few points in your note; but do not trouble yourself to reply, without you have something important to say.—

I grieve to say that I feel compelled to disbelieve in the Lyellian view that Glacial Epoch is connected with position of continents:³ I have not thought myself compelled to say anything on this head, more than on cause of heat at Melville Is^d in Carboniferous period:⁴ I think we know nothing on subject.—

I do not feel quite sure of entire revolution of continents & seas even during Chalk Period: the shores of Chalk Sea in Europe can be partly traced.

I do not see why the exclusively Australian forms could not have been manufactured in Australia: you must have here some meaning which I cannot fathom. I quite agree how strange that no Australian forms got to Europe: but I do not see why most Australian plants sh^d have been pushed into the sea.⁵

Many Thanks for caution about seeds of Trees: I was quoting by memory from A. De Candolle.— I will strike out passage.—⁶

About Cryptogamic plants, & physical conditions I cannot remember anything on the checks to their increase, ie on their general relations of life.—⁷

I daresay you will make excellent use of “wet & dry” in distribution: it is beyond my tether.

I shall be very curious to see your Essay.⁸

I sh^d like to know whether the case of Endemic Bats in Islands struck you: it has me especially; perhaps too strongly.⁹

With hearty thanks | Ever yours | C. Darwin

You cannot tell what a relief it has been to me, your looking over this chapter, as I felt very shaky on it.—

I shall tomorrow finish my last chapter, (except a Recapitulation) on Affinities, Homologies, Embryology &c & the facts seem to me to come out very strong for mutability of species.— I have been much interested in working out this chapter. I shall now, thank God, begin looking over old first chapters for press.—¹⁰ But my health is now so very poor, that even this will take me long.—