the
roots of grasses and of all annual plants, or do you suppose that _all_
these are devoured by worms? In reading the book I have not noticed a
single erratum.

I enclose you a copy of two letters to the _Mark Lane Express_, written
at the request of the editor, and which will show you the direction in
which I am now working, and in which I hope to do a little
good.--Believe me yours very faithfully,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] "While at Hertford I lived altogether in five different houses, and
in three of these the Silk family lived next door to us, which involved
not only each family having to move about the same time, but also that
two houses adjoining each other should have been vacant together, and
that they should have been of the size required by each, which after the
first was not the same, the Silk family being much the larger."--"My
Life," i. 32.

[2] "My Life," i. 191-2.

[3] "My Life," i. 108-111.

[4] Darwin makes a similar comment: "I was very successful in
collecting, and invented two new methods ... and thus I got some very
rare species. No poet ever felt more delighted at seeing his first poem
published than I did at seeing, in Stephens' 'Illustrations of British
Insects,' the magic words, 'captured by C. Darwin, Esq.'"--Darwin's
Autobiography, in the one-volume "Life," p. 20.

[5] "My Life," i. 194-5.

[6] There is no record in his autobiography as to the exact date when he
first became acquainted with Lyell's work, though several times
reference is made to it.

[7] "Travels on the Amazon," p. 277.

[8] "Voyage of the _Beagle_," pp. 11-12.

[9] "Voyage of the _Beagle_," p. 534.

[10] It is interesting to note that the careers of Sir Joseph Hooker,
Charles Darwin, H.W. Bates, Alfred Russel Wallace and T.H. Huxley were
all determined by voyages or journeys of exploration.

[11] "Life of Charles Darwin" (one-volume Edit.), p. 29.

[12] "Voyage of the _Beagle_," p. 535.

[13] This letter may have been written for publication.

[14] A reference to the loss of his earlier collection (p. 29).

[15] The original of this letter is in the possession of the Trustees of
the British Museum.

[16] For the other part of this letter see "My Life," i. 379.

[17] "My early letters to Bates suffice to show that the great problem
of the origin of species was already distinctly formulated in my mind;
that I was not satisfied with the more or less vague solutions at that
time offered