AJ, a collector, would like a few lines from CD and an autographed photograph.

Tells of shooting wood-pigeons that had in their crops acorns that did not grow locally.

[Fragment of letter glued to 2197.]

Pigeons in Egypt alight on trees rather than on the mud hovels of the natives [see Variation 1: 181].

[Two fragments glued to 2196.]

Prepared to think world infinitely old, but not that life originated with a single cell. Questions whether geological evidence supports gradual progress in organisation. HW thought scientific opinion during Vestiges debate was against this hypothesis. Argues that presence of same senses in lower animals and vertebrates does not imply descent; assumes resemblance is due to living in same world and thus having organs for the same purposes. Wants CD to know how others may see these questions.

Gives CD references to papers on eyes of lower animals.

Glacial action in the Andes.

Origin of Chilean sheep.

Varieties of S. American horses.

Facts and inferences relating to different varieties of sweetpeas.

Extracts from botanical literature dealing with Dionaea, intercrossing, and sensitivity. [Bot. Ztg. (1833): 96; Thomas Nuttall, Genera of N. American plants (1818)].

Habits of ducks when sleeping on water.

Gives an extract from L. von Buch on the flora of the Canaries [Physikalische Beschreibung der Canarische Inseln (1825)].

Natural selection does not explain why animals of different groups in the same place often resemble each other.

Agassiz denounces Origin as "atheistical";

AG is currently reviewing it [in Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 29 (1860): 153–84].

Jeffries Wyman praises it, though not a convert.

Thanks CD for the Origin. WW is not yet a convert but there is so much "of thought and of fact" in what CD has written that "it is not to be contradicted without careful selection of the ground and manner of the dissent".

Notes by HCW on the Origin dealing especially with divergence and convergence. Believes there is some natural tendency to converge into groups in opposition to divergence generated by natural selection.

Sends a copy of his Ventriculidae [of the Chalk (1848)]. This group, he feels, is well represented by CD’s plate of graduating species [Origin, ch. 4].

Answers to queries on expression with respect to Fuegians.

American edition of Origin. AG’s assessment of the book’s weak and strong points. Suggests Jeffries Wyman would be a useful source of facts and hints for CD.

Presents statement of expenses and anticipated profit of the new edition of 3000 copies [of Origin].

On the Origin. Before expressing his disagreements, CJFB praises CD’s labour, patience, fairness, and other qualities which make the work "one of the most important that has ever appeared in Natural History". [See 2690.]

It is not true that all the fossil cave bears are of the same species.

Lists land birds of Galapagos and discusses their distribution on mainland of S. America.