Ɛpsilon

From W. P. Snow   21 November 1881

Erith | Kent

Nov 21—1881

Dear Sir,

Though now aged—64—I occasionally ramble about the lanes and Byeways around me, studying and ever learning more of that Nature I love.

I am about trying a revised and cheaper Edition of my Cruise in Tierra del Fuego &c, (issued by Longmans in 1857, 2 Vols) and, in looking over material, I find your valuable opinions on the natives etc. somewhat the reverse of mine.1

I still propose, and have submitted, (uselessly to our Governmt. though more favourably to Foreign Powers,) the establishment of a small Settlement and Harbor of Refuge etc. about Cape Horn.

I enclose an Article I wrote on my Ocean Plans etc. in Chambers’ Journal last year.2

The specimens I collected in T. del Fuego I still retain, and the Holothuria3 from the Beagle Channel in 1855, looks as good as on the day I there collected it.

I should be most happy to show it to yourself or anyone passing my way, or, if agreeable to you, will, some day, when the ground is hard for walking, pay my respects to you in person, and bring it, unless the visit of a stranger should be too intrusive.

In my heavy literary labours, unaided, and much opposed by officials and the Missionary Society,4 my old days are far from easy, and it will be a question if I can ever bring to fruition and publication what I have for so many years laboured upon, but, if I do, a copy shall be sent.

I do not forget a temporary aid you rendered a few years ago.—5

With esteem | yr. fthfl Servt | W. Parker Snow

Chas: Darwin Esq

1
For Snow’s remarks on the natives of Tierra del Fuego, see Snow 1857, 1: 344–55; he regarded the people as generally peaceful and found no evidence that they practised cannibalism, as had been reported by the Beagle officers (see ibid., 1: 350). No later edition of Snow’s narrative has been found. For CD’s views, see Journal of researches, pp. 227–30, 234–43.
2
Snow’s article ‘Ocean relief depots’ appeared in Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Arts, 27 November 1880, pp. 753–5.
3
Holothuria is a genus of sea cucumbers.
4
For differing accounts of the disagreement between Snow and the Patagonian Missionary Society, see Correspondence vol. 20, letter from B. J. Sulivan, 20 June 1872 and nn. 1 and 2, Patagonian Missionary Society 1857, and Snow 1858.
5
CD may have given financial assistance to Snow (see Correspondence vol. 20, letter from B. J. Sulivan, 20 June 1872 and n. 5).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13495,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13495