My dear Hooker

Really I do not know how to thank you half enough for all you have done for & sent to me: I might with truth do so for every single paragraph in your letter & every one volume. My wife begs to be most kindly remembered to you & she sends her best thanks for your valuable present.

I have not a quarter studied your botanico-geographical letter; & as I have to go to London tomorrow, I fear I must keep it for rather more than a week.— I will, then, also, commence first with the lent books, which will take me some little time, as I seldom am able to stand more than one hour’s scientific reading.— I began the Tasmanian J: last night & was astonished at its interest.

To get all your geographical facts in one’s head will be a hard task; I trust that your sketch¹ will not have caused you ultimately loss of time, as, judging by myself, preliminary sketches & resketches do much good. Your remarks are exactly the thing, which ever since being in Tierra del Fuego, I have felt a keen curiosity about, & have often complained to Henslow, how rarely I c^d find any such general remarks in Botanical works—I am far from a competent judge, but I cannot doubt, that your generalizations will be a most valuable & permanent gift to science. I cannot doubt that many others will be as much interested, as I am, in seeing all your results worked out.

Seriously I almost grieved, when I saw the length of your letter, that you sh^d have given up so much time to me,—Sir William will think me a bad friend to you—but anyhow, I trust, the sketch-part, of your geographical results, will not turn out lost time— When I return I shall have to learn, read & digest, & afterwards I will write my thanks again; for anything beyond my hearty thanks, I do not think I shall have to send.

Ever yours | C. Darwin