ll I met your son
there one evening when I was going to leave the next morning. It is a
glorious country, but the time I like is May and June--the foliage is so
glorious.

Sincerely hoping you are pretty well, and with kind regards to Mrs.
Darwin and the rest of your family, believe me yours very faithfully,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

* * * * *

_Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E. October 21, 1869._

My dear Wallace,--I forwarded your letter at once to my son George, but
I am nearly sure that he will not be able to tell you anything; I wish
he could for my own sake; but I suspect there are few men in England who
could. Pray send me a copy or tell me where your article on Murphy will
be published. I have just received the _Month_, but have only read half
as yet. I wish I knew who was the author; you ought to know, as he
admires you so much; he has a wonderful deal of knowledge, but his
difficulties have not troubled me much as yet, except the case of the
dipterous larva. My book will not be published for a long time, but
Murray wished to insert some notice of it. Sexual selection has been a
tremendous job. Fate has ordained that almost every point on which we
differ should be crowded into this vol. Have you seen the October number
of the _Revue des deux Mondes?_ It has an article on you, but I have not
yet read it; and another article, not yet read, by a very good man on
the Transformist School.

I am very glad to hear that you are beginning a book, but do not let it
be "little," on Distribution, etc. I have no hints to give about maps;
the subject would require long and anxious consideration. Before Forbes
published his essay on Distribution and the Glacial Period I wrote out
and had _copied_ an essay on the same subject, which Hooker read. If
this MS. would be of any use to you, _on account of the references_ in
it to papers, etc., I should be very glad to lend it, to be used in any
way; for I foresee that my strength will never last out to come to this
subject.

I have been pretty well since my return from Wales, though at the time
it did me no good.

We shall be in London next month, when I shall hope to see you.--My dear
Wallace, yours very sincerely,

CH. DARWIN.

* * * * *

_9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. December 4, [1869]._

Dear Darwin,--Dr. Adolf Bernhard Meyer, who translated my book into
German, has written to me for permission to translate my ori