Enjoyed the merry evening with JMH.

Apologises for delay in thanking him for the flowers. Has been too unwell to write.

Morning Herald had an account of CD’s 80 specimens of Mammalia and 450 birds at the Zoological Society.

John Gould has described new species in CD’s Galapagos birds.

Much interest in CD’s "Laurels".

Family news.

Declines invitation to dine at Downing College because of influenza.

"I could think of nothing for days after your lesson on coral reefs, but of the top of submerged continents. It is all true, but do not flatter youself that you will be believed, till you are growing bald, like me, with hard work & vexation at the incredulity in the world."

News of family and friends.

Caroline repeats story told to R. W. Darwin of FitzRoy’s feeling of obligation to Captain John White, from whom he gained release to marry Miss O’Brien.

Fanny Biddulph has had a son.

Interested in Lyell’s address [Proc. Geol. Soc. Lond. 2 (1833–8): 479–523]. Asks what the points are on which CD and Lyell are fully agreed.

Inquires about the paper FitzRoy and CD wrote on missionaries ["Moral state of Tahiti" (1836), Collected papers 1: 19–38].

News of family.

Has just given a paper [on "Sand tubes"] at Cambridge Philosophical Society and exhibited some specimens. It went well, with Whewell and Sedgwick taking an active part.

Herschel thinks 6000–odd years since the creation not nearly long enough to explain the separations from a single stock.

CD seeks to decline the Secretaryship [of the Geological Society] by citing his obligation to FitzRoy to write his volume of the narrative of their expedition. His youth, inexperience, and ignorance of English geology.

Finished going over his geological specimens at Cambridge, and is now in London.

Describes his plans for writing the journal, and later the geology and zoology of the Beagle voyage.

Would have had great pleasure in accepting CB’s invitation, "whether for beauty or for shells", but has another engagement.

“The Botanists” and “The learned Linguists” give thanks for book and assistance.

Recommends David Williams’ paper on raised beaches of Devon [David Williams, "Letter … on the raised beaches of Barnstaple", Trans. Geol. Soc. Lond. 2d ser. 5 (1840): 287–8] be shortened and published immediately after Sedgwick’s and Murchison’s paper ["Description of a raised beach in Barnstaple", ibid., pp. 279–86] as chief point of paper is to support their conclusions.

Publication plans for the account of the Beagle expedition – CD to have the third volume for his journal.

News of naturalists and their interest in his specimens. Queries about plant specimens, including one on whether seeds from Keeling Island would endure salt water.

Discusses possibility of publishing the zoology of the voyage of the Beagle. Will need help from more able naturalists. Would LJ object to describing the fishes for such a work rather than for scientific journals? Is working on his Beagle journal.

Sends an abstract made by J. F. Royle of CD’s paper ["On certain areas of elevation and subsidence in the Pacific and Indian Oceans"]. G. B. Greenough will have problems with the altered references in the coral island section.

Plans to apply to Government for assistance with publishing Zoology.

Robert Brown has taken an interest in the fossil woods.

CD is at work on his journal. Has not begun his geology yet. Has seen much of Lyell.

Sends a number of questions (to put to his father), mainly concerned with transmission of diseases, between Europeans and natives, "people packed together", etc.

Is investigating how to get Government support [for Zoology].

CD to read paper on formation of coral islands at Geological Society. Lyell seems prepared to give up [his view].

Publication of the Narrative is now definite. Feels he should have published journal after the geology and zoology of the voyage.

Robert Brown, as well as JSH, is interested in edible fungi from Tierra del Fuego.

Asks JLS: "Are there masses of coral or beds of shells some yards above high water mark, on the coast fronting the barrier reef?" [In reference to JLS’s proposed exploration of Australian coasts and rivers.]