Of
all the impressions which I have received from your book, the strongest
is that your perseverance in the cause of science was heroic. Your
descriptions of catching the splendid butterflies have made me quite
envious, and at the same time have made me feel almost young again, so
vividly have they brought before my mind old days when I collected,
though I never made such captures as yours. Certainly collecting is the
best sport in the world. I shall be astonished if your book has not a
great success; and your splendid generalisations on geographical
distribution, with which I am familiar from your papers, will be new to
most of your readers. I think I enjoyed most the Timor case, as it is
best demonstrated; but perhaps Celebes is really the most valuable. I
should prefer looking at the whole Asiatic continent as having formerly
been more African in its fauna, than admitting the former existence of a
continent across the Indian Ocean. Decaisne's paper on the flora of
Timor, in which he points out its close relation to that of the
Mascarene Islands, supports your view.
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