Discusses hybridisation in cowslip and primrose.

Mentions proposed visit.

CD probably advised omitting mention of experiments suggesting that oxlips, cowslips, and primroses could be produced from the seed of a single plant

Chapter 12 [of Variation] finished;

too late to include information on six-fingered men. Plans for book on man [Descent].

Mentions coral reefs of Tahiti.

Discusses volcanic islands; volcanoes of the Cordillera.

Thanks CL for comments [on Variation].

Thinks Pangenesis would be important step in biology if admitted as probable.

Introduction to French edition [of Origin] has injured the book.

Replies to CL’s further comments [on Variation].

Discusses direct action of the environment as a cause of variation.

Describes seeds transported in locust dung. Discusses other cases of transport and migration.

Discusses transport of frog spawn and young molluscs by birds.

Asks to borrow Philosophical Transactions, vol. 157, pt 2 (1868).

Takes "much to heart" solar evidence for short age of the earth. Cites evidence for "long endurance of our existing continents". Comments on process of denudation.

The second volume of Lyell’s [Principles, 10th ed.] gives a "fair history of the progress of opinion on Species".

Pleased by allusion to Pangenesis: "an untried hypothesis is always dangerous ground".

Looks forward to chapter on domestication and on man.

Comments favourably, though often differing, on articles by G. H. Lewes.

Discusses claim of Agassiz [in A journey in Brazil (1868)] that he found evidence of glaciers in Brazil. Suggests sponsoring an expedition to test these claims.

Discusses views of Wallace, H. N. Moseley, and Croll on the mechanics of glacier movement.

Comments on Wallace’s new book [The Malay Archipelago (1869)].

Discusses wear and tear due to glaciation and significance of this evidence for dating the glacial period. Mentions views of James Croll and Archibald Geikie on the issue.

Asks for a photograph of CL to be used by a society [in Serbia].

Comments on article by Wallace ["Sir Charles Lyell on geological climates and the Origin", Q. Rev. 126 (1869): 359–94].

Has finished new edition of Origin [5th (1869)]

and is back at work on sexual selection [Descent].

Cites article by David Forbes dealing with the geology of the S. American Cordillera ["Geology of Bolivia and South Peru", Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 17 (1861): 7–62].

Discusses the flexures of the Cordillera, the age of the mountains, and basaltic dikes in granite areas.

Has just arrived in London, and would like to visit the following morning at breakfast time.

No summary available.

Discusses phases of climate.

Describes fossil mammals discovered by Auguste Bravard in South America.

Has had argument with Bishop of Oxford [Samuel Wilberforce] about CD’s book [Origin].

Discusses review in Annals and Magazine of Natural History. Guesses that T. V. Wollaston is the author.

Discusses evidence of shells on Madeira.

Comments on paper by Wallace ["On the zoological geography of the Malay Archipelago", J. Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Zool.) 4 (1860): 172–84].

It is small comfort to be told you will be succeeded in lineal descent by angels when Lamarck and Darwin have made your ancestors without souls. However, can the progressive system not be seen as most consonant with a higher destiny if all spiritual natures advance? The link of common descent to inferior beings like idiots should be obvious. Infants die before they become responsible. Pope’s An essay on Man [1733] shows how man was "In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast", without speculation on his genealogy.

Saw Salter’s Spirifer specimens; a very good proof of indefinite modifiability.

Beginning to think gap between Cambrian and Lower Silurian enormous.

Édouard Lartet to give paper before Geological Society ["On coexistence of man with certain extinct quadrupeds", Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 16 (1859–60): 471–5].