How interesting it will be to see hereafter plants
treated in strict relation to your views; and then all insects,
pulmonate molluscs, and fresh-water fishes, in greater detail than I
suppose you have given to these lower animals. The point which has
interested me most, but I do not say the most valuable point, is your
protest against sinking imaginary continents in a quite reckless manner,
as was started by Forbes, followed, alas, by Hooker, and caricatured by
Wollaston and Murray. By the way, the main impression which the latter
author has left on my mind is his utter want of all scientific judgment.
I have lifted up my voice against the above view with no avail, but I
have no doubt that you will succeed, owing to your new arguments and the
coloured chart. Of a special value, as it seems to me, is the conclusion
that we must determine the areas chiefly by the nature of the mammals.
When I worked many years ago on this subject, I doubted much whether the
now-called Palearctic and Nearctic regions ought to be separated; and I
determined if I made another region that it should be Madagascar.
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