From Arthur Mellersh   30 November [1862]1

16 Queens Terrace | St. Johns Wood | London. N.W.

Nov. 30.

My dear Darwin,

I am going out to be Captain of the Forte Flagship to Admiral Warren on the E. Coast of S. America, and You think there is anything I can do for You in the fossil way I shall be happy to do it if you will tell me.2 Sulivan was telling me that there is a bed of fossil bones at the Gallegos which he wished to examine but had not an opportunity, if any small vessel of the squadron should be going down there I may be able to procure some if You think them worth having—3 I should be much obliged if You would tell me the right name of those fine birds which are found in Patagonia something like a guinea fowl, of which I shot the only specimen obtained, and only preserved the head and legs.4 A large landed proprietor in Sussex who has a large enclosed tract of heath has promised to endeavour to naturalize them if I will send some over which I shall endeavour to do, and as a lady who formerly lived at Montevideo told me that she kept some tame and that they did well I hope to get them home alive. I hope your indisposition was only temporary the night we passed at your house, but I was sorry to leave you poorly after passing such a pleasant evening.5 I saw Admiral FitzRoy on Friday, who was finishing his book as he told me, and looked worn as if he had been closely confined to his work.6 I leave England in a few days and if you think it worth while to write I shall be here until Thursday—

Hoping some day to meet you again I am my dear Darwin with compliments to Mrs. Darwin, Yours very truly | A. Mellersh

1
The year is established by reference to Mellersh’s appointment to HMS Forte (see n. 2, below).
2
Mellersh, who had been a junior officer on HMS Beagle during its surveying voyage of 1831–6, was appointed on 12 November 1862 to the command of HMS Forte, flagship of Richard Laird Warren, the British navy’s commander-in-chief on the south-east coast of America (Navy list, January 1863).
3
Bartholomew James Sulivan provided CD with an account of his fossil find at Rio Gallegos, Patagonia, in 1845 (see Correspondence vol. 3, letter from B. J. Sulivan, 13 January – 12 February 1845).
4
The reference has not been identified; however, Mellersh probably refers to a member of the Tinamidae, three species of which CD mentioned as having been abandoned on the plains of Patagonia in Journal of researches, p. 131. See also Zoology 3: 119–20.
5
Mellersh dined with CD at Down House on 21 October 1862, in company with Sulivan and John Clements Wickham, also former shipmates from HMS Beagle (see ‘Journal’ (Correspondence vol. 10, Appendix II)). Following the meal, CD was so ill that he was unable to ‘wish them goodbye next morning’ (see letter to John Lubbock, 23 October [1862]).
6
FitzRoy 1863. Robert FitzRoy commanded HMS Beagle during the surveying voyage of 1831–6, when Mellersh and CD were on board.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3836,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3836