From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Stevens Henslow
Date:
[Sept 1831 – May 1861]
Source of text:
North East Wales Archives, Ruthin (DD/PH/115)
Summary:
Valediction only.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
Showing 81–100 of 289 items
Valediction only.
CD in London to meet with naturalists about his collections. Lyell and Owen are helpful, but no one else, except R. E. Grant, seems to want to examine his specimens.
Alerts JSH to boxes of specimens and letter of 30 Oct on the way by wagon.
Thomas Bell has expressed interest in CD’s Crustacea and reptiles.
CD’s ignorance about his botanical specimens embarrasses him.
Asks whether JSH is disappointed with Galapagos plants.
All his affairs are most prosperous. Has found many who will undertake description of animals; he will work at the geology. Lyell has been most friendly and kind.
CD has been proposed to the Geological Society.
Arranges to meet CW for conversation.
"Mr Darwin presents his compliments to the Master & Fellows of Caius Coll. and is extremely sorry he is prevented by a previous engagement the honor of dining with them on Thursday."
Informs WDF of his activities since the Beagle landed.
Has written to Royal College of Surgeons, exactly as RO recommended, concerning disposition of his South American fossil bones. He fixed on the British Museum, rather than Paris, to receive plaster casts, because he was on board a King’s ship. Suggests RO propose another set for Paris, where they would be more useful than at BM. Has scarcely begun unpacking his cases.
Enjoyed the merry evening with JMH.
Declines invitation to dine at Downing College because of influenza.
CD seeks to decline the Secretaryship [of the Geological Society] by citing his obligation to FitzRoy to write his volume of the narrative of their expedition. His youth, inexperience, and ignorance of English geology.
Finished going over his geological specimens at Cambridge, and is now in London.
Describes his plans for writing the journal, and later the geology and zoology of the Beagle voyage.
Would have had great pleasure in accepting CB’s invitation, "whether for beauty or for shells", but has another engagement.
Discusses the geology of volcanic islands.
CD is much obliged for invitations to CB’s parties, but is afraid to accept because he would meet people to whom he has sworn he never goes out.
Recommends David Williams’ paper on raised beaches of Devon [David Williams, "Letter … on the raised beaches of Barnstaple", Trans. Geol. Soc. Lond. 2d ser. 5 (1840): 287–8] be shortened and published immediately after Sedgwick’s and Murchison’s paper ["Description of a raised beach in Barnstaple", ibid., pp. 279–86] as chief point of paper is to support their conclusions.
Publication plans for the account of the Beagle expedition – CD to have the third volume for his journal.
News of naturalists and their interest in his specimens. Queries about plant specimens, including one on whether seeds from Keeling Island would endure salt water.
Plans to apply to Government for assistance with publishing Zoology.
Robert Brown has taken an interest in the fossil woods.
CD is at work on his journal. Has not begun his geology yet. Has seen much of Lyell.
CD to read paper on formation of coral islands at Geological Society. Lyell seems prepared to give up [his view].
Publication of the Narrative is now definite. Feels he should have published journal after the geology and zoology of the voyage.
Robert Brown, as well as JSH, is interested in edible fungi from Tierra del Fuego.
Asks JLS: "Are there masses of coral or beds of shells some yards above high water mark, on the coast fronting the barrier reef?" [In reference to JLS’s proposed exploration of Australian coasts and rivers.]