Ɛpsilon

To G. E. Dobson   12 April 1878

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

April 12th 1878

Dear Dr. Dobson.

The monstrosity of Fuchsia, which you have been so good as to send me is not of an uncommon order.—1

With respect to Bats at the Galapagos I shd. assuredly recorded their presence & earnestly endeavoured to shoot one, had any been seen.— Of course it does not follow from this that there are none; yet as I never collected in any place with so few insects. it is probable that Bats are really absent.2

Believe me | yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin

2
Dobson had asked CD about the presence of bats in the Galápagos Islands (see letter from G. E. Dobson, 12 April 1878); he included the information in this paragraph in his Catalogue of the Chiroptera in the collection of the British Museum (Dobson 1878, p. xxx n.). CD had visited the Galápagos Islands in 1835 (see Journal of researches, pp. 453–78).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.2 order] after del ‘of’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11473,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11473