Discusses CL’s paper, "On craters of denudation" [Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 6 (1850): 207–34], which "will be a thorn in the side of É[lie] de B[eaumont]". Notes evidence from Galapagos overlooked by CL. Mentions other examples of craters.

Comments on CL’s Anniversary address [Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 6 (1850): xxvii–lxvi]. Notes CL’s criticism of R. I. Murchison’s catastrophism.

Asks whether there are Lower Cretaceous beds in Scandinavia. Thinks Leopold von Buch must have neglected them.

Discusses depths at which ripple-marks appear on sea-floor.

Personal and social comment.

Mentions receiving Agassiz’s Lake Superior [1850].

Detailed critique of CL’s A manual of elementary geology [3d ed. (1851), used in editing 4th ed. (1852)].

Returns Lake Superior [1850], which he already has received from Agassiz. Thanks for pamphlets by C. B. Adams [on Mollusca, Contrib. Conchol. 10 (1851): 189–206; 11 (1852): 207–15].

Describes his dissection of an unusual cirripede [Alcippe lampas] with 12 males attached [see Living Cirripedia 2: 556, 558].

Volcanic activity of Mt Kilauea as described by Dana [Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 9 (1850): 347–64]. Discusses the mechanics of volcanic eruption. Disputes view of William Hopkins that simultaneous action by volcanoes of different heights must come from separate lava sources. Notes relationship of continental elevation to volcanic action.

Describes meeting of Geological Society [1 June 1853].

Mentions his criticism of Murchison’s lecture on flints.

Describes Robert Chambers’ "On the glacial phenomena in Scotland" [Edinburgh New Philos. J. 54 (1853): 229–82].

Mentions controversial election of members to the Royal Society.

Comments on CL’s plan to visit Tenerife.

Discusses inclination of strata on islands and around mountains.

Personal affairs of several scientists.

Visit by Henslow.

Notes publication by Hooker [Himalayan journals (1854)].

Discusses views of Daniel Sharpe on foliation and cleavage. Recalls his own previous discussion [in South America].

Has found a house on Baker Street to take for a month.

Mentions Daniel Sharpe’s study of the Grampians.

Association of various metamorphic rocks and relationship of their foliation to their dip and strike. Discusses foliation of schists and its origin. Comments on fluidity of gneiss and schists.

Relationship of schists to alternating beds of slate in western Tierra del Fuego and the Chonos Islands.

Comments on Sharpe’s theory of curved cleavage planes.

Example of metamorphosis in a "clay-slate porphyry region". Importance of previous lines of cleavage and stratification in foliation of metamorphosed rock.

CL would like to put Joachim Barrande on the Royal Society’s foreign list. Of French geologists and palaeontologists, he is the man who has made the greatest sacrifices and produced the greatest results.

Mentions his paper ["Transportal of erratic boulders", Collected papers 1: 218–27]. Discusses ice-borne rock. Reference to unpublished paper on icebergs [?"Power of icebergs to make grooves", Collected papers 1: 252–5]. Remarks on scoring by icebergs. Comments on judgment of theories by Geological Society.

Comments on two pamphlets by John Bachman [probably Continuation of the review of "Nott and Gliddon’s types of mankind" (1855) and An examination of the characteristics of genera and species as applicable to the doctrine of the unity of the human race (1855)].

CD’s pigeon breeding and plant hybridization experiments.

Invites CL to visit.

Speculates about cause of inclination in unusual columns of lava. Suggests CL check with William Hopkins about sliding movements in viscid matter.

Comments on CL’s expedition to Madeira.

Urges CD to publish his theory with small part of data.

Corrects names of land shells on list of shells picked up at Down.

Discusses transport of Ancylus from one river-bed to another by water-beetle.

"I hear that when you & Hooker & Huxley & Wollaston got together you made light of all Species & grew more & more unorthodox."

Mentions discussion of old Atlantis by Oswald Heer.

Comments on Helix and Nanina.

Mentions beetle discovered with small bag of eggs of water-spider under wing.

Madeira evidence favours single species birth-place theory.

Discusses possibility of publishing a sketch of his views.

Comments on CL’s letter [1862].

Mentions various geological topics.

Asks to borrow publication by Heer.

Mentions flight of Colymbetes over ocean.

Recalls visit by Wollaston.

Notes views of Hooker and Huxley on species.

Mentions ability of ducks to transport plant seeds.

Condemns theory of Edward Forbes and others that many islands were formerly connected to South America by now submerged continents.

CD forgets an author [CD himself in Coral reefs] "who, by means of atolls, contrived to submerge archipelagoes (or continents?), the mountains of which must originally have differed from each other in height 8,000 (or 10,000?) feet".

CL begins to think that all continents and oceans are chiefly post-Eocene, but he admits that it is questionable how far one is at liberty to call up continents "to convey a Helix from the United States to Europe in Miocene or Pliocene periods".

Will CD explain why the land and marine shells of Porto Santo and Madeira differ while the plants so nearly agree?

Criticises at length the concept of submerged continents attaching islands to the mainland in the recent period. Notes drastic alteration of geography required, the dissimilar species on opposite shores of continents, and differences between volcanic islands and mountains of mainland areas. Admits sea-bed subsidence, but not enough to engulf continents. Denies that theory can explain island flora and fauna.

Considers Edward Forbes’s idea a check on study of dissemination of species.