My dear Wallace

I have now finished the whole of Vol I, with the same interest & admiration as before; and I am convinced that my judgement was right and that it is a memorable book, the basis of all future work on the subject.¹ I have nothing particular to say, but perhaps you would like to hear my impressions on two or three points. Nothing has struck me more than the admirable & convincing manner in which you treat Java.² To allude to a very trifling point, it is capital about the unadorned head of the Argus-pheasant³   How plain a thing is, when it is once pointed out! What a wonderful case is that of Celebes: I am glad that you have slightly modified your views with respect to Africa.⁴ And this leads me to say that I cannot swallow, the so-called continent of Lemuria, i.e. the direct connection of Africa & Ceylon. The facts do not seem to me many and strong enough to justify so immense a change of level. Moreover Mauritius and the other islands appear to me oceanic in character.⁵ But do not suppose that I place my judgement on this subject on a level with yours. A wonderfully good paper was published about a year ago on India in the Geolog: J,—I think by Blandford. Ramsay agreed with me that it was one of the best published for a long time. The author shows that India has been a continent with enormous fresh water lakes from the Permian period to the present day. If I remember right he believes in a former connection with S. Africa.⁶

I am sure that I read, some 20 to 30 years ago, in a French Journal an account of teeth of mastodon found in Timor; but the statement may have been an error.⁷

With respect to what you say about the colonising of N. Zealand, I somewhere have an account of a frog frozen in the ice of a Swiss glacier, and which revived when thawed.⁸ I may add that there is an Indian toad which can resist salt water & haunts the sea side.⁹ Nothing ever astonished me more than the case of the Galaxias; but it does not seem known whether it may not be a migratory fish like the salmon.¹⁰ It seems to me that you complicate rather too much the successive colonisations into N. Zealand. I should prefer believing that the Galaxias was a species, like the Emys of the Sevalik Hills, which has long retained the same form.¹¹ Your remarks on the insects & flowers of N.Z: have greatly interested me; but aromatic leaves I have always looked at as a protection against their being eaten by insects or other animals; and as insects are there rare such protection would not be much needed.¹² I have written more than I intended; & I must again say how profoundly your book has interested me.

Now let me turn to a very different subject. I have only just heard of & procured your two articles in the Academy. I thank you most cordially for your generous defence of me against M^r. Mivart.¹³ In the Origin I did not discuss the derivation of any one species; but that I might not be accused of concealing my opinion I went out of my way & inserted a sentence which seemed to me (& still so seems) to declare plainly my belief. This was quoted in my Descent of Man. Therefore it is very unjust, not to say dishonest, of M^r Mivart to accuse me of base fraudulent concealment.¹⁴ I care little about myself; but M^r Mivart in an article in the Q. Review (which I know was written by him) accused my son George of encouraging profligacy, & this without the least foundation   I can assert this positively as I laid George’s article & the Q. Review, before Hooker, Huxley & others, & all agreed that the accusation was a deliberate falsification.¹⁵ Huxley wrote to him on the subject & has almost or quite cut him in consequence; & so would Hooker, but he was advised not to do so as Pres. of the Royal Soc.—¹⁶ Well he has gained his object in giving me pain, & good God to think of the flattering almost fawning speeches which he has made to me. I wrote of course to him to say that I would never speak to him again.¹⁷ I ought, however, to be contented, as he is the one man who has ever, as far as I know, treated me basely. Forgive me for writing at such length & believe me | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

P.S. I am very sorry that you have given up Sexual Selection.— I am not at all shaken & stick to my colours like a true Briton.¹⁸ When I think about the unadorned head of the Argus pheasant, I might exclaim, “et tu Brute”!¹⁹