My dear Hooker

I did not answer your pleasant note, with a good deal of news to me, of May 30^th,¹ as I have 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 anything to say who spends every day in correcting accursed proofs; & such proofs! I have fairly to blacken them & fasten slips of paper on, so miserable have I found the style.—

You say you dreamt that my Book was entertaining, that dream is pretty well over with me, & I begin to fear that the Public will find it intolerably dry & 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.² My doubt has been (& I see Wright has inserted same in Athenæum)³ whether the pieces of flint are really tools: their numbers make me doubt;⁴ & when I formerly looked at Boucher de Perthes drawings⁵ I came to the conclusion that they were angular fragments broken by ice-action.⁶

Have you made out anything about Goodenia? Did crossing the Acacia do any good?—⁷ I am so hard worked that I can make no experiments. I have got only to 150 page in first Proof.—

Adios | My dear Hooker | Ever yours | C. Darwin