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To John Evans   29 January 1878

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

Jan. 29. 78

My dear Mr Evans,

I think you are doing a very great service to Natural Science by getting the caves of Borneo explored. I shall be happy to subscribe £20, but I do not send a cheque as if more is necessary I shall be glad to give £30 or £40.1 I wish some one as energetic as yourself would organise an expedition to the triassic lacustrine beds in S: Africa, where the cliffs are said to be almost composed of bones.2

Pray believe me yours very sincerely, | Ch. Darwin

LS

1
CD sent a cheque for £20 on 2 September 1878 (CD’s Classed account books (Down House MS)). On the expedition to explore caves in Borneo, see the letter from John Evans, 28 January 1878.
2
The Triassic lacustrine deposits of South Africa were a rich source of reptilian fossils, intermediate forms important for the history of evolution (A. Desmond 1982, pp. 195–9). Richard Owen had written of ‘the singular and suggestive concordance of dentition with that in carnivorous mammals’ (R. Owen 1876, p. 29).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11339F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11339F