Thanks for new edition of Coral reefs [1874]

and Volcanic islands [1876].

His travels and studies confirm CD’s explanation of the banded structure of lavas.

Asks advice on transplanting insectivorous plants.

On JG’s Great ice age.

Discusses formation of drift deposits near Southampton.

Comments on Axel Blytt [Immigration of Norwegian flora (1876)].

Has had fearful misgivings that the step-like plains of Patagonia may have been caused by changes in level of sea, not land.

Comments on book [Archibald Geikie, Life of Sir Roderick I. Murchison (1875)].

Asks CD’s opinion of a proposed protest [unspecified] and asks whether he will sign it.

Finds he does not have a duplicate of the Japanese natural history book. Sends other volumes of grotesque pictures.

He can show F. W. Hutton erred in calling Peripatus novae zelandiae self-fertilising; suspects J. F. Bullar has made a similar error on parasitic Isopoda. They both mistook spermatophores for testes.

Agrees with CD that Charles Voysey’s "Protest" would not do any good.

Has less sympathy with half-hearted sentimental school than with thorough-going orthodoxy. On theological dogmas, benevolence of the Creator.

[Encloses copy of his letter to Voysey.]

Writes about the purchase of a horse.

Thanks CD for [2d English edition of] Volcanic islands and South America [1876].

Is at work on Cross and self-fertilisation. Asks about some doubtful points.

Expresses his pleasure in reading Die Schutzmittel der Blüthen gegen unberufene Gäste (Kerner 1876)..

Realises he has made some errors in Cross and self fertilisation.

Agrees with much of CV’s proposed protest but cannot sign it. Feels it is likely to do more harm than good.

Thanks CD for considering his protest, which he has now decided not to carry out.

Mr Laslett’s estimate is too high. Mr Deards is quicker and better. Discusses building details for house improvement.

Thanks for Japanese books, and papers by HNM.

Comments on Peripatus.

Not disappointed at what William Thomson says about evolution.

Tells JVC what changes have been made in the new edition of his geological book [Volcanic islands and South America].

Does not know why he doubted about the Atlantic dust paper – now thinks it worth translating.

Glad JVC has not found Cross and self-fertilisation as intolerably dull as CD feared. Answers his queries about Cross and self-fertilisation.

Met CD at a bath the previous summer.

Proposes he work on human illness.

Explains how they look after Drosera plants.

Encloses his father’s autograph.

Thanks for a correction. Hopes AG now has all the sheets of Cross and self-fertilisation.

Sends W. Thomson’s complimentary opinion of his paper "On the influence of geological changes on the earth’s axis" [Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 167 (1877): 271–312].

Encloses printed letter from Land and Water in which he proposes a hypothesis that explains how soaring birds can stay aloft by expelling air from their lungs.

Sends photograph of man with peculiar facial features, whom HW treated at St Mark’s Ophthalmic Hospital.