Sends news of his movements since Beagle put in at Falmouth. His charts are safe and already being engraved.

Announces his engagement.

Welcomes CD; has tried to find him. May see him in Cambridge. Reminisces about CD’s musical taste and memory. Describes Charles Whitley’s wedding and wife. Mentions friends.

Asks CD’s help in finding a tutor for his son Charles.

Has returned CD’s Beagle journal MS. Thinks it would be an interesting account even if they did not know CD, and that it will be successful if published; the less it is mixed up with FitzRoy’s journal, the better.

Has been presenting wedding gifts to her nieces and nephews during CD’s absence, without asking whether they are ready for them, so she sends him £40.

Caroline says CD has taken a lecture room for his work at Cambridge.

The Royal College of Surgeons’ Board of Curators approve the terms and conditions under which CD has offered his S. American fossil bones to the College, and have sent their recommendation to the Council.

Comments on [MS of] CD’s paper ["Elevation on the coast of Chili" (4 Jan 1837), Collected papers 1: 41–3].

Invites CD to dinner. "Don’t accept any official scientific place, if you can avoid it".

News of family and friends, Harriet Martineau’s soirée; funds deposited for him.

RF has consulted W. J. Broderip, who recommended a joint three-volume publication of Captain King’s journal, FitzRoy’s, and CD’s, with profits divided by three. What does CD think of such a plan? RF promised Colburn an answer in January.

Fragment glued to CD’s notes on rock specimens. The recto refers to one of CD’s specimens, the verso mentions his Keeling Island plants.

Apologises for delay in thanking him for the flowers. Has been too unwell to write.

Morning Herald had an account of CD’s 80 specimens of Mammalia and 450 birds at the Zoological Society.

John Gould has described new species in CD’s Galapagos birds.

Much interest in CD’s "Laurels".

Family news.

"I could think of nothing for days after your lesson on coral reefs, but of the top of submerged continents. It is all true, but do not flatter youself that you will be believed, till you are growing bald, like me, with hard work & vexation at the incredulity in the world."

News of family and friends.

Caroline repeats story told to R. W. Darwin of FitzRoy’s feeling of obligation to Captain John White, from whom he gained release to marry Miss O’Brien.

Fanny Biddulph has had a son.

Interested in Lyell’s address [Proc. Geol. Soc. Lond. 2 (1833–8): 479–523]. Asks what the points are on which CD and Lyell are fully agreed.

Inquires about the paper FitzRoy and CD wrote on missionaries ["Moral state of Tahiti" (1836), Collected papers 1: 19–38].

News of family.

“The Botanists” and “The learned Linguists” give thanks for book and assistance.

Reports on the insect specimens [collected by CD] from Australia, New Zealand, and Tierra del Fuego. Has not completed descriptions.

Dissected beak of Rhynchops shows no extensive innervation. But beak may nevertheless be a sensitive organ of touch as CD suggests.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer and their Lordships after receiving numerous representations in support of Mr Darwin’s proposal concur in the opinion that Public Funds in aid of the Expenses should be granted as soon as he is ready to proceed in conformity with the enumerated conditions.

Syenitic granite from Norway carried as far as Osnabruck.

Has met warm reception in Germany.

Leopold von Buch mistaken in believing that granite overlies transition rock in Norway. Granite sends veins into transition and gneiss.

Has been examining fossil shells of Crag with Heinrich Beck. Beck admits some shells are of species still living.

CL still believes Eocene, Miocene, and Pliocene are satisfactory divisions of Tertiary epoch.