LETTER 48. TO J.D. HOOKER.
Down, July 5th [1856].

I write this morning in great tribulation about Tristan d'Acunha. (48/1.
See "Flora Antarctica," page 216. Though Tristan d'Acunha is "only 1,000
miles distant from the Cape of Good Hope, and 3,000 from the Strait of
Magalhaens, the botany of this island is far more intimately allied to that
of Fuegia than Africa.") The more I reflect on your Antarctic flora the
more I am astounded. You give all the facts so clearly and fully, that it
is impossible to help speculating on the subject; but it drives me to
despair, for I cannot gulp down your continent; and not being able to do so
gives, in my eyes, the multiple creationists an awful triumph. It is a
wondrous case, and how strange that A. De Candolle should have ignored it;
which he certainly has, as it seems to me. I wrote Lyell a long geological
letter (48/2. "Life and Letters," II., page 74.) about continents, and I
have had a very long and interesting answer; but I cannot in the least
gather his opinion about all your continental extensionists; and I have
written again beseeching a verdict. (48/3. In the tenth edition of the
"Principles," 1872, Lyell added a chapter (Chapter XLI., page 406) on
insular floras and faunas in relation to the origin of species; he here
(page 410) gives his reasons against Forbes as an extensionist.) I asked
him to send to you my letter, for as it was well copied it would not be
troublesome to read; but whether worth reading I really do not know; I have
given in it the reasons which make me strongly opposed to continental
extensions.

I was very glad to get your note some days ago: I wish you would think it
worth while, as you intend to have the Laburnum case translated, to write
to "Wien" (that unknown place) (48/4. There is a tradition that Darwin
once asked Hooker where "this place Wien is, where they publish so many