Ɛpsilon

To Robert Bell   14 April [1876]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

April 14th

Dear Sir

I am greatly obliged for your very kind letter. The discovery of the tailed man wd. indeed be wonderful, but it will probably (I shd. imagine) turn out to be the skeleton of some quite distinct animal.2

I have been much amused by your account of the man who wrote to me from Duluth & whom I answered. He walked all the way from London to see me, so that I had five minutes talk with him, & he was one of the oddest creatures I ever saw in my life, with some ability though only half educated.—3

I hope that Geology continues to flourish in Canada where such grand work has been done by the Survey.—4

My dear Sir | Yours faithfully & obliged | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Robert Bell, 28 March 1876.
2
Bell had sent a newspaper article about the discovery of the skeleton of a tailed human in Prince Edward Island, Canada; see letter from Robert Bell, 28 March 1876 and n. 1.
3
Henry A. Head had written to CD from Duluth, Minnesota, in 1872 and 1873; see letter from Robert Bell, 28 March 1876 and n. 3. Head had walked from Beckenham to visit CD at Down (Correspondence vol. 20, letter from H. A. Head, 18 September 1872).
4
Bell worked for the Geological Survey of Canada.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10450,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10450