Very many thanks for your kind and very generous letter with regard to the last of the Challenger volumes. In the future you will be regarded as having done more then any other naturalist to render the Expedition and the publications famous. ‒ And some day I hope to show how much both Wyville-Thomson and myself were indebted to you from the very return || of the Expedition. The work of the Expedition should be regarded as an international as well as a national effort, in which your countrymen have played a large part. Perhaps scientific men may, while fostering true patriotism, be able to lead the human mind to points where very wide and new views of duty may be obtained! ‒ At all events, the Challenger work could not have been undertaken || and carried through without the cooperation of men like yourself ‒ belonging to many parts of the world. It is very kind of you all to overlook at the present time my many errors and shortcomings. ‒ I did my best in the circumstances.
Owing to the recent death of my father-[in]-law our domestic announcements are very hazy for the immediate future. I have || a lot of scientific work to go on with. And then I wish to send off on Antartic Expedition within the next two years!!!
It is not unlikely we may go with all the family to the continent either in the autumn a or spring and spend over a year there before finally settling down in a permanent home. ‒ We will certainly ‒ if we do this ‒ spend many months in Germany. Best remembrances to Mrs Haeckel and all your family
