Hayes | Bromley, Kent.
22d. Feby 1868
My dear Mr. Darwin.
Enclosed is the only black fellow I have got.1
“Mr Tincan” is a capital specimen of the race & very characteristic of the better tribes in Victoria.2
He was a very steady & intelligent fellow, for a black fellow, & live⟨d, for⟩ some time as a stock keeper, with a friend of mine; a perfect mode⟨l of⟩ propriety, except, for a few weeks periodically, when, like almost every other “civilised” black fellow that I ever heard of, he insisted upon having his “fling” & taking to his Opossum skin would run quite wild amongst his dusky companions. He had rather a ludicrous taste for the fine arts, & I have got some pictures of his which I should be glad to rout out some day & shew you.
Please let me have the Photograph back when you have done with it.
In addition to the list of enquiries as to the emotions, of which I enclosed a reply in my last, I have sent a list of them to a gentleman in ⟨Quee⟩nsland & also to one in South Australia, who will I am sure take great pains about them, so that you should be very thoroughly informed as to the Australian natives.3
A mention in yr. great new work of the cross of the bulldog having been introduced to give courage & tenacity to a breed of the Greyhound,4 reminds me of a very laughable story that occurred under my own knowledge.
For some years I had a cattle station of my own & between my place & some almost inaccessible ranges, a little settler sat down & earned an honest livelihood by breeding a few cattle. ⟨He⟩ was greatly annoyed by the wild dogs which in those days, were ⟨very nu⟩merous particularly amongst the hills, & finding ⟨ ⟩ ⟨Kangeroo⟩ dogs, altho very good for their principal ⟨pu⟩rsuit, had not courage enough to deal with the wild dogs ⟨h⟩e took up to his station a very fine bull dog of a high pedigree, with a view of introducing the necessary spirit. He chained up his prize close to his hut & doubtless hugged himself in the belief, that he should soon be upon a much better footing with his enemy. But the wild dogs did not enter into the experiment at all in a corresponding spirit, & almost directly after the arrival of the bull dog they held a cabinet council amongst themselves to consider the merits of the case, & after voting by acclamation an entire want of confidence in the new arrival, they took the
Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5916,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on