Ɛpsilon

From Robert Patterson   18 October 1860

6 College Square North. Belfast

Oct 18. 1860

My dear Sir

I copy for you a note, that I hope may possess some interest.1 Should you ever think of publishing it, I think it would be only right to the gentleman who is my authority for the fact, to send a copy of the note to him for revision so as to avoid all chance of error.

I am Very truly Yours | Robert Patterson.

Chas. Darwin Esq

PS. Your old friend Ogilby,2 and Dr. E. P. Wright of Dublin,3 spent last Tuesday evening in my house.

[Enclosure]

Copy Augt 27 1860. When visiting the Copeland-Islands at the entrance to Belfast Lough this day, Captn Nesbitt RN.4 one of the Elder Brethren of the Trinity House,5 told me the following fact. In 1845, when the Trinity House bought up all the private Lighthouses round the Coast, the Skerries near Holyhead,6 had immense numbers of rabbits, which were extensively used by the lighthouse-keepers. A few years ago an American vessel was wrecked there, on board of which there were a number of rats. These swam to the shore. They have now increased prodigiously in numbers, have destroyed the wild rabbits, and are obliged to live in a great degree on the shellfish of the shore. The light-house men not only have lost the wild rabbits, but find a difficulty in rearing any tame ones, because of the attacks of the rats.

CD annotations

1.3 to send … revision] double scored ink
Top of first page: ‘Struggle for Existence’ ink; ‘Ch 5.’7 brown crayon
1
Robert Patterson, a Belfast naturalist, had corresponded with CD since 1847. See especially Correspondence vol. 5.
2
William Ogilby, also an Irish naturalist, had in 1842 served with CD on a committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science charged with drawing up rules for standardising zoological nomenclature. See Correspondence vol. 2, letter to H. E. Strickland, 17 February [1842]. Ogilby had been secretary of the Zoological Society from 1840 to 1847.
3
Edward Perceval Wright was a lecturer in zoology at Trinity College, Dublin. He was editor of the Natural History Review until it changed hands in 1860. Afterwards he remained one of a team of editors that included Thomas Henry Huxley and John Lubbock. See letter to T. H. Huxley, 20 July [1860].
5
The Corporation of Trinity House is an association of English mariners, chartered in 1514, whose duties include the erection and maintenance of lighthouses and beacons and the supervision of pilots. The Elder Brethren were initially a select group of thirteen charged with the management of the corporation’s affairs, two of whom were elected from the Royal Navy and eleven from the merchant service; as a mark of honour, persons of rank and eminence were also sometimes admitted as honorary Elder Brethren (EB).
6
Skerries Lighthouse is located on the highest of a group of rocky islands off the north-west coast of Anglesey, North Wales.
7
CD refers to chapter 5 of his ‘big book’ on species (Natural selection, pp. 173–212). The information does not seem to have been included in later editions of Origin.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2954,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2954