He had a much better beard than I have managed to achieve.
And as for Kropotkin:
John Allen Paulos, if I remember correctly, used to ask students in his "math for poets" class to estimate the rate of growth of their hair in miles per hour, often getting the answer "hair doesn't grow in miles per hour". Paulos had a valid point, but so did the students: in everyday life, use units on the right scale. Beer should be measured in pints, not litres. That beard grew in miles per hour.
By the way: if you're a creationist, intelligent-designer or related dipstick looking for another specious argument to bolster your non-existent case: too bad.