CD regrets the trouble RO has had about C. G. Ehrenberg’s parcel.

He is reading On the nature of limbs [1849] with uncommon interest and admires the way Owen worked out the toes.

Also has read On parthenogenesis [1849] with great interest.

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.

Sends thanks for a note and returned drawing.

He is sending more text.

Thanks JSB for specimens of fossil Balanidae.

Because of health, CD will postpone coming to London until all drawings are finished.

Asks JdeCS, if he is able "with any honesty", to "purloin" for him a proof-sheet of Frederick Dixon’s plate with cirripedes [in Geology and fossils … of Sussex (1850)].

Requests statement of total owed to JdeCS as a guide to the future.

Has lost a good many days and will need another fortnight to finish the pedunculate fossil cirripedes. The Palaeontographical Society will publish the fossil species. "If I was but better in health, I shd work quicker."

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.

CD wants Lepadidae drawings [for Fossil Cirripedia] harder, with lines of growth more distinct; he wants no shading or similarity to lithography, which he thinks has harmed natural history. He realises that mutilated specimens may make accuracy difficult.

Asks to borrow a cirripede specimen from collection of Frederick Dixon.

The Palaeontographical Society will give him only one plate for foreign species. Work should stop until he knows how many will fit in. He must know what progress has been made.

Mentions AH’s ["On the boring of the Mollusca into rocks", Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 2d ser. 2 (1848): 225–48]. Discusses anatomy and habits of Lithotrya.

Urges dispatch on illustrations [for Fossil Cirripedia]; CD’s MS has been ready for some time and all depends on JdeCS. Suggests a way to hasten progress.

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

Personal and social comment.

Mentions receiving Agassiz’s Lake Superior [1850].

CD is pleased with the drawings for Fossil Cirripedia but wants a few corrections which he would like very soon.

No summary available.

Reports on the fossil cirripedes sent him; several are new, some are "elegant".

CD asks for the return of a specimen [to be used for illustration in Fossil Cirripedia (Lepadidae)], so he can do some identifying.

J. S. Bowerbank has again asked on behalf of the Palaeontographical Society what progress has been made.

Returns one figure and sends two minute new species to be figured [for Fossil Cirripedia (Lepadidae)]. "Pray observe how time slips by."

CD insistently requests JdeCS to have all rough illustrations [for Fossil Cirripedia (Lepadidae)] done in time for next Council meeting of the Palaeontographical Society.

Expresses sympathy to MSH on W. J. Hooker’s illness.

Will send his comments on Hodgson’s physico-geographical memoir ["On the physical geography of the Himalayas", J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal 18 (1849): 761–88] directly to him.