on to prevent waste or destruction of stores in places where it
is impossible to supply them.

Fanny wrote me last month to know about how I should like to live on my
return. Of course, my dear mother, I should not think of living anywhere
but with you, after such a long absence, if you feel yourself equal to
housekeeping for us both; and I have always understood that your cottage
would be large enough. The accommodation I should require is, besides a
small bedroom, one large room, or a small one if there is, besides, a
kind of lumber room where I could keep my cases and do rough and dirty
work. I expect soon from Thomas a sketch-plan of your cottage, by which
I can at once tell if it will do. If not, I must leave you and Fanny to
arrange as you like about a new residence. I should prefer being a
little way out of town in a quiet neighbourhood and with a garden, but
near an omnibus route, and if necessary I could lodge at any time for a
week in London. This, I think, will be better and much cheaper than
living close to town, and rents anywhere in the West End are sure now to
rise owing to the approaching Great Exhibition. I must of course study
economy, as the little money I have made will not be all got in for a
year or two after my return....

You must remember to write to me by the middle of November mail, as that
is probably the last letter I can receive from you.

I send the letter to Fanny, who will most likely call on you and talk
over matters. I am a little confused arriving in a new place with a
great deal to do and living in a noisy hotel, so different to my usual
solitary life, so that I cannot well collect my ideas to write any more,
but must remain, my dear mother, your ever affectionate son,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

* * * * *

TO HIS SISTER, MRS. SIMS

_In the Mountains of Java. October 10, 1861._

My dear Fanny,--I have just received your second letter in praise of
your new house. As I have said my say about it in my last, I shall now
send you a few lines on other subjects.

I have been staying here a fortnight 4,000 feet above the sea in a fine
cool climate, but it is unfortunately dreadfully wet and cloudy. I have
just returned from a three days' excursion to one of the great Java
volcanoes 10,000 feet high. I slept two nights in a house 7,500 feet
above the sea. It was bitterly cold at night, as the hut was merely of
plaited bamboo, like a sieve, so that the wind