Alerts JSH to boxes of specimens and letter of 30 Oct on the way by wagon.
Thomas Bell has expressed interest in CD’s Crustacea and reptiles.
CD’s ignorance about his botanical specimens embarrasses him.
Asks whether JSH is disappointed with Galapagos plants.
Sends Journal of the Asiatic Society. Calcutta Museum wants a hippopotamus skeleton; asks JH for leads.
Completed tour of Upper Assam searching for [wild tea shrub]. Wife and seriously ill children leaving for England. Lord Auckland [governor-general of India] urges sending consignments of plants and seeds to JH and Baron C. F. H. Ludwig.
Sends meteorological observations for September. Has ceased making a charge at the observatory for the checking of chronometers. Has lost income but gained work. Comments on the effects of gravity on the balance wheel of a chronometer.
Another son born. Has given lectures at Cambridge University. Remarks on routine at Royal Observatory. St. Helena Observatory closed. Printing of the Greenwich Observations. 'Northumberland' telescope not ready yet. Observations on the Greenwich zenith tube. Estimates for the Observatory. Suggests that the Observatory should be moved to a new site. Railway plan near Greenwich altered. James MacCullagh's new theory of optics.
Cornerstone and tree answer admirably. Gives the points in the present triangulation. Lieut. John Williams of the Engineers has promised assistance. There is a French frigate in the harbor, which he intends to visit.
All his affairs are most prosperous. Has found many who will undertake description of animals; he will work at the geology. Lyell has been most friendly and kind.
CD has been proposed to the Geological Society.
No summary available.
Arranges to meet CW for conversation.
His fossil bones are unpacked and some are great treasures. He has some geology to do: R. I. Murchison has lent him a map and asked him to look at a part of the country he has been describing.
Their only protection against having Harriet Martineau as sister-in-law is that she works Erasmus too hard.
No summary available.
No summary available.
Stewart & Co., printers, and publishers Smith, Elder & Co. would be honored to print JH's proposed book. Estimates costs. Printing would require three years while JH is in Africa, but only four months after JH returns to England. Anticipates problems if [Hugh Percy] Duke of Northumberland purchases entire edition for free distribution.
Has succeeded in fixing an 18 pounder gun firmly in the ground to mark the western termination of the base-line query on how to measure the meridian of a mountain at sea level. Has requested permission from the Governor to inspect the military orders for 1751-2.
No summary available.
No summary available.
Pleased to hear JH's work is progressing. Disappointed with Dr. [John] Davy's meteorological observations at Malta. Comments on other scientific news, including recent eclipse, [Andrew] Crosse's controversial artificial crystals at Bristol B.A.A.S. meeting, JF's 1832 observations in Switzerland, and William Whewell's and William Buckland's books.
Discusses methods of magnetic observation, JH's actinometric readings in the Cape, and the need for more physical observatories.
Some geological samples have been lost on the way to England; JH comments on his ideas of the effect of the earth's hot core on the construction of the earth's crust.
No summary available.