Has been learning to use a clinometer.
Has investigated passage and fares for Canaries trip.
Rereading Humboldt.
Asks JSH to thank Jenyns for present of Diptera.
Showing 1–20 of 65 items
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.
Has been learning to use a clinometer.
Has investigated passage and fares for Canaries trip.
Rereading Humboldt.
Asks JSH to thank Jenyns for present of Diptera.
GP has been asked to recommend a naturalist to sail with Capt. Robert FitzRoy to Tierra del Fuego and the South Sea Islands. If Leonard Jenyns is not available, whom would JSH recommend?
P.S. Urges JHS not to lose this opportunity to have collections made for "our museum".
JSH has been asked by Peacock to recommend a naturalist as companion to Capt. FitzRoy on Beagle voyage. CD the best qualified person; not a finished naturalist but amply qualified for collecting, observing, and noting.
Feels he should decline Beagle voyage offer because of his father’s objections, which he lists. Would otherwise have taken all risks.
[Geological] trip with Adam Sedgwick a success.
Grieved at Marmaduke Ramsay’s death.
Has just arrived in Cambridge; his father has changed his mind. Asks to see JSH.
Has met FitzRoy, who has now offered him the post of naturalist on board the Beagle. Other details about the voyage arrangements – mess, CD’s status, route, books.
All is settled – nothing can now alter CD’s determination. Details of plan and arrangements. Beaufort believes CD’s collections should be presented to some public body. CD thinks a large central collection best for natural history. Is busy getting advice and information from Yarrell and Capt. P. P. King for the voyage.
Plans to come to Cambridge to discuss Beagle voyage. Only difficulty is disposal of his collections. South Sea Islands now more probable.
Has collected [Phalli] in Shropshire and compared them with Barmouth species. Is convinced they are different.
Asks JSH for introductions to R. T. Lowe and Andrew Smith.
Has been given another week’s respite by FitzRoy.
Asks JSH to take charge of his consignments of specimens from the voyage.
Gives CD directions for sending him specimens from Beagle.
Writes of Cambridge politics.
Hopes to be able to help Cambridge Philosophical Society with his collections, but thinks most will have to go to British Museum.
Describes Beagle quarters, the surgeon [Robert McCormick, M.D.], and officers.
Asks JSH’s advice on studying mathematics.
Sailing date fixed for end of month. Beagle is beautiful. Details of instructions and route. Hopes voyage will not exceed four years. Quarters very confined. Considers Jenyns did wisely in not coming. If CD were longer out of college and some years older he never could have endured it.
Is sending plates for R. T. Lowe’s paper [Trans. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 4 (1833): 1–70].
Adds advice on working the surd.
Agrees with CD that Beagle voyage would have been wrong for Jenyns, but assures him he (CD) is the right man. Warns CD against his "foible" of taking offence at rudeness or ungentlemanlike behaviour.
Confusion on board the Beagle at definite prospect of sailing. Gives directions for sending mail to Montevideo.
News of Cambridge: the recent examinations; memorial tablet for Marmaduke Ramsay.
His first letter to JSH since December. Recounts his seasickness, geologising and marine collecting at St Jago [Santiago, Cape Verde Is.]; his first tropical forest. Collecting small insects from the tropics. His Welsh trip with Sedgwick has been extremely valuable.
Specimens being sent off. Describes his collection of rocks, plants, and insects. Some particularly interesting specimens.
A French collector [Alcide d’Orbigny] has been at the Rio Negro and will probably have "taken the cream". CD’s luck with fossil bones, among them a large extinct armadillo-like animal. Describes some birds, toads, Crustacea, and other marine specimens. Nearly all plants flowering at Bahia Blanca were collected. Is sending two large casks of fossil bones by packet.
Acknowledges receipt of two letters from CD and a box of specimens.
Mentions attendance at BAAS meeting and a gift to him of a small living near Oxford. Some political news.
Congratulates CD on the work he has done – the specimens are of great interest. Gives advice on packing, labelling, and future collecting and suggests that – as a precaution – CD send home a copy of his notes on the specimens.