To P. H. Gosse   28 September [1856]

Down Bromley Kent

Sept. 28th

My dear Sir

I thank you warmly for your extremely kind letter1 & for your information about the Bald-Pate, which is quite sufficient.2 When we meet I shall beg to hear the actual coo!

I will by this very post write to Mr Hill,3 & will venture to use your name as an introduction, which I am sure will avail me much; so you need take no trouble on subject, as using your name will be all that I should require.—

With very sincere thanks | Yours truly | C. Darwin

I am very anxious to get all cases of transport of plants or animals to distant islands.— I have been trying the effects of salt-water on the vitality of seeds—their powers of floatation—whether earth sticks to birds feet or base of beak, & I am experimenting whether small seeds are ever enclosed in such earth, &c &.—. Can you remember any facts.— But of all cases whatever, the means of transport, (& such I much think exist) of Land Mollusca utterly puzzle me most.4 I shd. be very grateful for any light.—

Endorsement: ‘1867’

1
The letter has not been found, but see n. 2, below.
2
See CD’s letter to P. H. Gosse, 22 September [1856]. In Variation 1: 182 n. 8, CD discussed Coenraad Jacob Temminck’s assertion that Columba leucocephala was a true rock pigeon and noted that ‘I am informed by Mr. Gosse that this is an error.’
3
Richard Hill had assisted Gosse with his books about Jamaica, particularly P. H. Gosse 1847 on the birds of the island. See letters from Richard Hill, 10 January 1857 and 12 March 1857.
4
CD gave the results of his investigations on the possible means of dispersal of land molluscs in Origin, p. 397. The problem was a ‘puzzle’ because the eggs could not withstand sea-water and yet oceanic islands were always well stocked with land shells. CD eventually concluded that the opercular membrane provided a water-tight seal over the opening of the shell and that hibernating molluscs could be floated across the ocean.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

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Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1962,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1962