‘Besides, the facts I have from nature of the segregation of three or more varieties in one locality, under uniform climatal conditions, prove how much more natural selection has to do with the matter than local physical conditions. The facts of hereditable diseases, however, go to show that the peculiarities acquired by the individual from action of climate, etc., may be transmitted to offspring; and this would explain many facts, such as the general similarity of foliage in certain localities and attitudes, prevalence of certain colours in insects in certain climates, and so forth. ** All this goes to show that although natural selection is the main cause of the production of new races and species, yet external conditions have some effect in supplying it with variations to work upon, and giving a character to those variations; and this is just Mr. Darwin’s position. ‘* Nothing shows more strikingly how the two principles are intertwined in their workings than their effects on the fur of animals. It is admitted that heat and cold have a direct effect on the skin of sheep, and through it on their wool. On this account cold may have something to do with the thick fur of arctic animals. But the white colour of the fur of those which live on the snow cannot be at all the effect of snow, but must be wholly due to natural selection. °

‘IT must not forget to mention how pleased I was with your clear argument against local conditions, on the ground that a species exists in a constant form over a wide area and under very various conditions, variable even according to season. Also the illustration of twelve peas in a pod and Rivett wheat in Australia. ““ No two localities, as you say, have precisely the same conditions, The motive of selection in each locality is different in consequence of these conditions; hence the existence of local varieties and representative species. ‘‘It is parallel to the action of human selection; the Leicester breed of sheep varies in this county according to the breeders who, after a few generations, are obliged to look out for a pure blood ram to restore the perfection of the breed. ‘« Yours sincerely,

“HH. W. BATES.

In April 1862 Bates applied for a post in the department of zoology in the British Museum, vacated by the retirement of Mr. Adam White. But the limits of age and the conditions of examination were among the ostensible causes of his rejection. With that aptitude for putting round pegs into square holes which distinguishes even representatives of culture, the Trustees nominated a young man who had written some creditable poetry!

‘‘ The collections,” Bates writes in a letter to Dr. Hooker, ‘‘ of which the young man will have charge (part of the insects) are at present in the utmost confusion; scarcely a genus in proper order and dulynamed. No entomologist who wishes to name his species can do anything with it, and it is of very little aid to any one wishing to work out any scientific problem in which insects supply the facts. Yet this important and undigested mass of natural objects is entrusted to a young man having no taste or knowledge in this direction. The young man has yet to pass an examination He told a friend of mine that ‘six months ago he was up in the matter, but now he had forgotten and should be obliged to cram again.’ ”’

But the Trustees unwittingly rendered service to science by preferring Mr. O'Shaughnessy the litterateur, to Mr. Bates the naturalist. The classification of butterflies and the writing of the book went on unhindered. The weaving of the narrative out of the raw materials of journals was, however, a great labour, partly because of the difficulty of compressing an enormous mass of notes while maintaining the proportions of the subjects, but chiefly because of the severe standard by which Bates judged his own work. The following letter reports the progress made up to the autumn of 1862:—

HT. W. Bates to Charles Darwin.

‘* KING STREET, LEICESTER, October 17th, 1862.

**** MY DEAR MR. DARWIN,**

‘«T was as pleased as a child this morning to have a letter from you again.... Regarding my book, Iam thoroughly ashamed not to have finished the work after twelve months employed on it. I thinkI told you that it would be only external stimulus that would impel me on with it, I felt so disinclined to write. I hoped, however, having once commenced, a liking for the task would set in; but ithas not beenso. I have been working and bodging against inclination ever since April last. You wili be glad to hear that now six hundred pages are finished out of the seven hundred of which the work is to consist. Two-thirds of the MS. have been delivered to Murray. Afterthe last receipt M. writes: ‘It keeps up to the mark.’ With the autumnal weather a better activity has arisen, and I am writing rapidly. ‘*T must plead as a little excuse for slowness an interruption caused by re-writing and passing through the press my memoir in Zzmmean Transactions. This took me three hours a day for six weeks, from June to August.... I feel now that the memoir does not express my thoughts with the force and clearness that I think I could impart were I allowed to re-write the whole. IL shall be most anxious to have your deliberate criticism on it. I should think it is now about ready for distribution. I have matter for another better treatise on the origin of species out of local varieties.

‘Mr. Edwin Brown is manager in a large bank at Burton. I have known him twenty-one years; he was my earliest naturalist friend. I have always looked on him as a man of extraordinary intellectual ability. I have given him my notions on carabi He is amassing material (specimens) at very great expense. He has never travelled: this is a great deficiency, for the relations of species to closely allied species and varieties cannot, I think, be thoroughly understood without personal observation in different countries.... ‘Yours sincerely,

**H. W. BATES.”

Bates had gladly availed himself of Darwin’s offer to introduce him to Murray, who also read the earlier chapters of the book and endorsed Darwin’s commendation. Murray’s letters to Bates evidence an almost paternal interest in the progress of the work, and, on its completion, the high estimate which he formed of it was shown in his according to Bates terms equal to those which he made with authors of established reputation.*

At last the Waturalist on the Amazons, issued in two volumes, was published in January 1863, and leapt at once into the front rank amongst books of travel and original observation.

The style is well-nigh perfect. So vividly does it bring before

This is not the place to print the business letters which Bates has preserved; suffice it that they tell of payment on the most liberal scale to him for the less important work. of revision of other books.

Ixii MEMOIR.

us the country traversed that we feel ourselves wandering with the great traveller through the dense tangled vegetation—an uninterrupted forest from Para to Peru—and to be looking on the pageant of the seasons which defiles before us between sunrise and sunset in a land “where it is never either spring, summer, or autumn; where each day is a continuation of all three... budding, flowering, and leaf-shedding always going on in one species or another.” Perhaps, next to Darwin’s renewed encomiums on the book, the highest tribute was that paid by the distinguished naturalist, John Gould. He had long desired to see the Great King of Waters, and when he met Bates after the appearance of the book, his first greeting was: “Bates, I have read your book: I have seen the Amazons!” Darwin wrote as follows:—

‘‘ HARTFIELD, TUNBRIDGE WELLS, AZrz/ 30¢h, 1863.

‘‘You will have received before this the note which I addressed to Leicester after finishing vol. i., and you will have received copies of my little review of your paper. By the way, I heard yesterday from Asa Gray that his article on same is delayed till next number in Silliman’s Journal. I have now finished vol. ii., and my opinion remains the same—that you have written a truly admirable work, with capital original remarks, rst raze descriptions, and the whole in a style which could not be improved. My family are now reading the book and admire it extremely, and as my wife remarks, it has so strong an air of truthfulness. I had a letter from a person the other day, unknown to you, full of praise of the book. I do hope it may get extensively heard of and circulated, but to a certain extent things, I think, always depend on chance. I suppose the clicking noise of surprise made by the Indians is that which end of tongue applied to palate of mouth and swddenZy withdrawn makes? ‘‘T have not written since receiving your note of April 20th, in which you confide in me and tell me your prospects. I heartily wish they were better, and especially more certain; but with your abilities and power of writing it will be strange if you cannot add what little you require for your ‘income. ‘‘ What a grand ending you give to your book, contrasting civilisation and wild life! I quite regret that I have finished it. Every evening it was a real treat to me to have my half-hour in the grand Amazonian forest, and picture to myself your vivid descriptions. There are heaps of facts of value to me in a natural history point of view. Itis a great misfortune that you were prevented giving the discussion on species, but you will, I hope, be able to give your views and facts somewhere else. Once again I congratulate you, and believe me, ‘* Yours very sincerely,

‘“C, DARWIN.”’

To which Bates replied as follows:-—

‘22, HARWOOD STREET, HAVERSTOCK HILL, N.W.,

“* May 2nd, 1863.

*‘My DEAR MR. DARWIN,

**T have received both your letters containing remarks on my book, and need not say how well satisfied I feel with them. From all quarters, strangers and friends, the opinions are favourable. It is most curious: all find pleasure in the book, Darwinians, Calvinistic church ministers, Dissenting parsons, hard-headed men of business; women, old men and boys; philosophic naturalists and species grubbers. It makes one feel contented to be the author on the score of literary form alone, but more substantial rewards are not wanting, for Mr. Murray has given me a handsome sum (£250); although the edition (1250) is far from sold out. He has behaved in the most friendly manner to me, the friendliness visibly increasing every day. “‘T cannot forget that all this is due primarily to yourself, who gave me so favourable an introduction to a publisher. Not only that, if it had not been for your spurring me on I am quite sure the book would never have been written. As long as I live I shall remember these things, and wish it were within the limits of etiquette to make them public. Murray said to me on Wednesday, ‘I am very glad I am the publisher of the book.’ ‘Your former letter, in which was a quotation from a letter of Asa Gray’s, gave me much pleasure. I find there is no end to the instruction that may be drawn from these cases of mocking butterflies; every time I reflect on them some new deduction flows forth, so that I think I have matter enough for another paper, which might be illustrated by the same plates. Mr. Wallace came last Sunday to spend the evening with me, and after examining all my specimens of these mockers, came to the conclusion that all nature does not furnish so plain and striking a case of the origin of species, and of new and complex adaptations to new conditions, by the simple process of variation and natural selection. But my first task will be to write a paper on the general subject of origin by segregation of local races. ‘ Believe me, yours sincerely,

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