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From William Ogle   12 April 1882

10 Gordon St. | Gordon Square

April 12. 1882

Dear Mr. Darwin,

Your remarks in “Nature” of last week remind me of an incident that occurred to me many years back, very similar to that which occurred to your son, and, strangely enough, on the same coast.1 I was out fishing for Mackarel in Cardigan bay, and had a wager with my companion as to who would catch the first dozen fish. He had one to win, and getting a bite, as he supposed, began to haul up as fast as he could, calling out in triumph—“I win! Here he is! Such a whopper”! when to his and my astonishment there appeared a big oyster on his hook in place of a fish. He stuck to it, that the hook was inside the shell; but I always have fancied that he was humbugging me, till I read your remarks in Nature; and now find that he may have told the simple truth after all.

Thank you for your kind and eulogistic letter re “the parts of animals”.2 It gave me much pleasure. I am glad also to have added a third person to your Gods, and completed the Trinity.3

With kindest remembrances to Mrs. Darwin and your family | Believe me | Yours very sincerely | William Ogle.

1
In ‘Dispersal of freshwater bivalves’, p. 530, CD had reported that Francis Darwin suspected that the mussels he hooked while fishing on the North Wales coast had not been mechanically torn from the bottom of the sea, but had seized the point of the hook.
2
In his letter to Ogle of 22 February 1882, CD praised Ogle’s introduction to his translation Aristotle on the parts of animals (Ogle trans. 1882).
3
In his letter to Ogle of 22 February 1882, CD stated that he had not realised what a ‘wonderful man’ Aristotle was, and that hitherto his two gods had been Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) and Georges Cuvier. Ogle alludes to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13767,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13767