Must decline invitation for dinner; he is unwell.
The Charles Darwin Collection
The Darwin Correspondence Project is publishing letters written by and to the naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882). Complete transcripts of letters are being made available through the Project’s website (www.darwinproject.ac.uk) after publication in the ongoing print edition of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin (Cambridge University Press 1985–). Metadata and summaries of all known letters (c. 15,000) appear in Ɛpsilon, and the full texts of available letters can also be searched, with links to the full texts.
Must decline invitation for dinner; he is unwell.
Congratulations on JDH’s engagement.
Sorry JDH is so determined on an expedition.
Glad BS intends to visit England. Fears there will be few geologists in London in August. Would be truly glad to see BS at Down, but cannot offer much geological information respecting England.
Regrets not seeing HD at Oxford meeting [of BAAS].
He may keep duplicates of parasitic insects from CD’s collection. Lyell has collected Pediculi for HD from Negroes in North America.
Returns the enclosed from his brother [Erasmus Alvey Darwin]
Cannot come to Hitcham as he is anticipating a visit from Bernhard Studer of Bern.
Wants to go over remainder of species sketch when he sees JDH.
Urges JDH to go to Scotland.
Pleased JDH works on geographical distribution of Van Diemen’s Land flora.
Planning a visit to Kew. Wishes to meet H. C. Watson.
Invites BS to visit Down. Advises him to call on Daniel Sharpe. Suggests he see the work of the Ordnance Survey in Wales.
Offers to lend him Murchison’s The Silurian system [3 vols. (1839)].
CD thanks JFR for remembering about the work he wanted to borrow [Trans. Agric. & Hortic. Soc. India].
Does JFR have Ambrose Blacklock, Treatise on sheep [1838]?
Sends a letter for JW to forward to Charles Stokes concerning the purchase of Leeds and Bradford railway shares for Emma Darwin’s trust fund.
Will send village carrier for volumes [of the Trans. Agric. & Hortic. Soc. India].
Will visit JDH on Friday. Coming by phaeton to save five changes of conveyance.
Bernhard Studer has been at Down. Studer will not be able to join HDelaB’s Ordnance Survey working party.
CD is glad to hear about very old rocks under Silurians. "There is something grand and mysterious at these depths."
Writes concerning Charles Stokes’s purchase of stock in the Leeds and Bradford Guaranteed Railway.
Is glad that JW III is settled for life at Leith Hill Place.
Returns JFR’s copies of Transactions [Agric. & Hortic. Soc. India]. Has not found quite as much as he thought he might on varieties of Indian domestic animals and plants; "the attempts at introduction have been too recent for the effects, if any, of climate to have been developed". Is impressed by the work of the English in India.
Questions Mrs W on difference in flight capacity of male and female silkworm moths and asks her for results of experiments he suggested she do with silkworms to determine hereditariness of dark "eyebrows". [See Variation 1: 302.]
Asks about collection of mollusc specimens he had lent to Richard Owen.
Asks about seeing cirripede collection of the College.
Comments on larva of Scalpellum.
Has letter from CD asking for copy of DM-H’s paper ["On the parallel roads of Lochaber" (1847), Trans. R. Soc. Edinburgh 16 (1849): 395–418]. RC still has suspicions and looks forward to further testing of Glen Roy mystery.
Discusses David Milne’s Glen Roy paper ["On the parallel roads of Lochaber", Trans. R. Soc. Edinburgh 16 (1849): 395–418]. Rejects Milne’s theory that outlet of Glen Roy is blocked by detritus. Impressed by Milne’s discovery of an outlet at the level of the second shelf. Believes this strengthens theory that lakes were formed by glacier blocking Glen Roy. Offers arguments against glacier theory.