My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

268 MY LIFEthe occurrence of northern groups of plants in allparts of the southern hemisphere—a phenomenonwhich Sir Joseph Hooker had pointed out, but hadthen no means of explaining.This volume, on " Island Life," involved muchdetailed work as regards the species of plants andanimals, information on which points I had to obtainfrom numerous specialists, involving a great amountof correspondence ; while it was illustrated by a largenumber of maps and diagrams, most of which weredrawn by myself. The preparation and writing thisbook occupied me for about three years, and it waspublished in 1880. It has gone through threeeditions, which have involved a large amount ofcorrections and additions ; and it is a work whichseems to have opened up a new world of interestingfact and theory to a large number of readers, fromseveral of whom I have received letters expressingthe delight and instruction it has given them.In 1878 I wrote a volume on Australasia forStanford's " Compendium of Geography and Travel,"in which I gave a fuller account than usual of thephysical geography, the natural history, and thegeology of Australia. In a later edition of this work,in 1893, I gave a much fuller account of the nativesof Australia, and adduced evidence for the theorythat they are really a primitive type of the greatCaucasian family of mankind, and are by no meansso low in intellect as has been usually believed. Thisview seems now to be generally accepted.In 1 881 a society was formed for advocating thenationalization of the land, of which I was electedpresident, and in 1882 I published a volume, entitled**Land Nationalization : its Necessity and its Aims."Some account of this movement will be given in a