Ɛpsilon

To J. G. Forchhammer   20 May [1850]

Down Farnborough Kent

May 20th

My dear Forchhammer

I ought to have written sooner to have thanked you very sincerely for your letter of the 27th of April: it told me quite fully & most clearly, all that I wanted to know of your Geology.1

Prof. Steenstrup’s specimen which I owe first to your kindness have been of great use & interest to me: I have now described 33 fossil Pedunculated Cirripides, & they are in Mr Sowerby’s hands to make drawings of.—

With my very sincere thanks | Believe me | Yours very truly | Charles Darwin

1
The letter has not been found. The geological information may have been in answer to letter to J. J. S. Steenstrup, 3 April [1850], asking about the relationship of the chalk formations of Scania, Faxoe, and Westphalia. In Fossil Cirripedia (1851): 7, CD cited Forchhammer and Steenstrup as his authorities for considering them equivalent formations, more recent than the common Upper or White Chalk and equivalent to the formation of Maastricht.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1328,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1328