Beagle is again in Brazil because of need to check on "singular disagreements in the Longitudes".
Pleased by Sedgwick’s praise.
Happily home, he sends thanks to his "first Lord of the Admiralty". Will visit Maer in two or three weeks.
CD describes his happy home-coming. Finds his family and Shrewsbury unchanged.
His joy at being home. Anxious to see JSH for advice on his geological specimens.
Last four days have been spent calling on naturalists. Geologists have been kind, but zoologists seem to think a number of undescribed creatures a nuisance.
Will send his belongings to Cambridge, but eventually his quarters must be London.
FitzRoy is to be married.
Congratulates CW on his marriage. Waiting in London till Beagle arrives in Woolwich.
Describes recent visit to Henslow in Cambridge.
At a loss to arrange specimens and observations.
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.
His fossil bones are unpacked and some are great treasures. He has some geology to do: R. I. Murchison has lent him a map and asked him to look at a part of the country he has been describing.
Their only protection against having Harriet Martineau as sister-in-law is that she works Erasmus too hard.
Dinner at the Hensleigh Wedgwoods’. They have agreed to go over his journal. Henry Holland thinks it not worth publishing alone because it goes over FitzRoy’s ground.
His impressions of Harriet Martineau: "She is overwhelmed with her own projects, her own thoughts and own abilities."
"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.
"Read a letter [to AC] of the 19th Instant from Mr Charles Darwin of Christs College, Cambridge stating that understanding from the Conservators that a Series of fossil Bones collected during the voyage of H: M: Surveying Vessel Beagle possesses a peculiar Interest as connected with Specimens already in the Museum of this College that it had always been his intention to present such Bones to some public collection on the condition that Casts thereof should be given to the leading Public Bodies for the sake of making them more generally useful, specifying the British Museum the Geological Society and the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, and one set for himself: and that under such Conditions he should be most happy to present the entire series to the Museum of this College."
Enjoyed the merry evening with JMH.
Declines invitation to dine at Downing College because of influenza.
Has just given a paper [on "Sand tubes"] at Cambridge Philosophical Society and exhibited some specimens. It went well, with Whewell and Sedgwick taking an active part.
Herschel thinks 6000–odd years since the creation not nearly long enough to explain the separations from a single stock.