The extract from Ticknor [see 10722] is one of the most curious cases of inheritance CD has met with. He has sent it to Francis Galton as CD is not likely to write on inheritance again.

Invites [WKP] to lunch.

Requests authoritative information on erratic boulders and marks of glaciers in New Zealand, and especially in southern islands.

Thanks WBDM for his reply [missing] to CD’s previous letter [1603].

Asks for more details on the erratic blocks.

Asks also if there is good evidence that there formerly existed [in New Zealand] some animal with hair, like an otter or beaver.

Finally, do the uncivilised natives have the same ideal of [human] beauty as Europeans?

Reminds WBDM of his promise of information about the quartz boulders and an iceberg with fragment of rock seen in southern ocean.

Sends other questions [on separate sheet (missing)] which WBDM will think ridiculous, but all bear on plants and animals under domestication.

Thanks WBDM for the particulars on the iceberg.

Will look up the barnacle specimen to which he refers at British Museum.

WBDM should remember when he returns to New Zealand that aboriginal rat and frog are "great desiderata in Natural History".

Thanks JvH for his address [to the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury], his Geological Report [Topographical and geological exploration of the western districts of the Nelson province, New Zealand (1861)],

and for the "honourable" notice of Origin.

CD especially interested in JvH’s facts on the old glacial period.

Asks about fossil remains [of supposed living mammalia] which CD thinks may be like "the Solenhofen bird-creature" [Archaeopteryx].

Urges the recording of rate and manner of spreading of European weeds and plants and observation on which native plants "most fail".

Acknowledges receipt of JvH’s letters and report of his expedition. Congratulates him on its success.

Has sent Origin.

There is hardly a place in the world as interesting as New Zealand with respect to geographical distribution.

Will quote the case of the ducks that nest in trees.

Is working hard on Variation.

Has been ill since April, so has not read all of JvH’s papers.

Encloses his photograph.

Has written to support JvH for Royal Society.

Samuel Butler [returned from New Zealand] is now established in London as an artist.

Regrets that JvH is not on list of candidates for Royal Society. This year the Council of Royal Society is extraordinarily deficient in natural historians and geologists. Thinks JvH is sure to be elected another year.

Writes, as Secretary of the Geological Society, to thank GAM for his presents, a slab of anthracite with plant impressions (from Philadelphia) and some fossils from Cornwall.

Asks JvH’s assistance in making observations on the expression of emotions. Encloses 17 queries that are being sent to various parts of the world.

Thanks JvH for J. Stack’s answers [to queries about expression]. Though few, they are the best and clearest he has received. Sends a corrected printed version of queries.

Belatedly thanks JvH for his splendid report on glaciers [missing].

CD lives "in constant state of overwork and fatigue".

Everyone astonished by Dinornis photos.

CD is too dull and languid to see Mr Bicheno but will be glad to answer his questions if he writes.

Asks WY to ask J. Sebright "whether the cross with white bantam brought back any of the ""secondary male characters"" to the hen–cock breed".

Regrets that he can offer little aid. If he sees Captain FitzRoy, he will give him GAM’s letter to read at leisure.

Capt. FitzRoy has read GAM’s letter to CD regarding an appointment for GAM’s son and is disposed to help, but has resolved to make no appointments until he arrives in New Zealand [as Governor].