To F. T. Buckland   2 October 18661

I am much obliged for the Paper which is full of interesting matter and for your note. I am sure I should be very glad to be of any assistance to you but my health is too weak for me to offer to be a correspondent; nor do I think it likely that I should have any questions to ask, and so take advantage of your obliging offer.2 I am endeavouring to complete a book which has been many years on hand.3 Perhaps you may remember my asking you about the feet of otter hounds.4 You obtained some information but never sent it me, being I have no doubt so much pressed with other business.5 I now enclose a query on the same subject, if you will be so kind as to insert it; if you were to back it up with an editorial request my chance of answer would be better, though I am not sanguine.6 I have ordered from my news vendor “Land and Water” for the next six months.7

With every good wish for your success and that your labour may grow lighter. | Believe me | Yours very faithfully | Charles Darwin

LS incomplete8

1
The date 2 October 1866 is given in the sale catalogue.
2
Buckland had sent CD a copy of Land and Water and asked him to direct any inquiries through the magazine (see letter from F. T. Buckland, 29 September 1866 and n. 1).
3
CD refers to Variation, which was not published until 1868. For more on CD’s work on the manuscript of Variation, see the letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 16 January [1866] and n. 1.
4
CD requested information about the feet of otter-hounds in his letter to F. T. Buckland, 11 December [1864] (Correspondence vol. 12). For a more detailed query regarding the feet of otter-hounds, see ibid., letter to T. C. Eyton, 29 December [1864?].
5
In December 1864 Buckland informed CD that a friend had promised him a dead otter-hound to examine (see Correspondence vol. 12, letter from F. T. Buckland, 13 December 1864 and n. 1).
6
CD’s note appeared in the 6 October 1866 issue of Land and Water (see letter to Land and Water, [2 October 1866]).
7
CD’s copies of the magazine have not been found.
8
The original letter is complete and is described in the sale catalogue as being three pages long.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5227F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5227F