Has been unwell.

Thanks TCE for his descriptions [of specimens for Birds]. Has already expended a high proportion of Government grant on birds, but if TCE thinks engravings are needed, he shall have them. He may keep the bones.

CD has become a father.

CD regrets inconvenience caused by his having Royal Geographical Society’s copy of Krusenstern’s Atlas [de l’océan Pacifique (1824–7)]. Locates Sulphur Island from it.

Sends MS [of Coral reefs?] to be copied.

Remarks on his illness and treatment.

Discusses MS [of Coral reefs] and changes in his view of coral reefs since Journal of researches. Mentions C. G. Ehrenberg’s observations on coral reefs.

Writes to find whether the date of the event [JMH’s marriage?] has been fixed.

Has been unwell and does not yet feel up to work.

Sends his paper on earthquakes [(1840), Collected papers 1: 53–86]. Now sets less value on theoretical reasoning in geology than when he wrote it.