From Charles John Andersson   [6 April 1856]1

with regard to the beau ideal satisfactorily; for amongst us Europeans it is well known that one man selects his partner for a handsome face, whilst another make his choice of a good figure without much regard to beauty. All I can say is that savages generally select their partners more for any attraction the body may posses than for beauty of face.2

By the by have you not described somewhere the flesh of the Puma as palatable3 Did you ever taste the flesh of lions? I find opinions vary greatly with regard to the flavour of its flesh—

With kindest Regards | Yours very truly | Chs. J. Andersson Chs. Darwin, Esqre.

CD annotations

crossed pencil
Bottom of second page: ‘Apr 6—1856’pencil
1
Dated by an endorsement in CD’s hand, presumably repeating the date given on the missing page of the letter (see CD’s annotations). This fragment was preserved in a portfolio of notes on sexual selection used in preparing Descent.
2
Andersson was a Swedish-born explorer of Africa. CD also asked Walter Baldock Durrant Mantell the same question about sexual selection among indigenous populations (see letter to W. B. D. Mantell, 10 April [1856]). Mantell was cited in Descent.
3
In Journal of researches, p. 135, CD reported having eaten puma meat on a journey from Patagones to Buenos Aires and pronounced it ‘remarkably like veal in taste’.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1850,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1850