Ɛpsilon

To J. P. Gaimard   14 October 18411

[Darwin explains that he accompanied Captain FitzRoy on his voyage on board H.M.S. Beagle as a naturalist, and he is almost ready to publish a small volume on coral formations.2 He has lively hopes of learning about one aspect of the subject, and the zeal with which M. Gaimard has for so long cultivated the natural sciences, emboldens him to hope that M. Gaimard will oblige a fellow worker in the same field. In the account by M. Cordier of the geology of the voyage of the Astrolabe (vol. I, p. cxi), he writes concerning Vanikoro that the island is “entourée de récifs madréporiques qu’on assure être de formation tout-à-faire moderne”3 … As he is extremely interested in this question and because he has come to much the same conclusion when it comes to the structure of the reef, he would would be grateful if M. Gaimard could inform him on what foundation the remark of M. Cordier rests: the source of the information and whether it relies on the traditions of the indigenous peoples. He begs M. Gaimard to reply quickly, since he is on the eve of publication; he knows very well that] my position is not such, as to have any claims to intrude on your valuable time:4

with much respect | I beg to remain | Sir | Your faithful servant | Charles Darwin

12 Upper Gower Stt.—

Incomplete5

1
The date is provided by the sale catalogue. The description of the text in the sale catalogue has been translated (except for a quotation) from French; the text of the letter from ‘my position’ has been transcribed from a photograph.
2
For CD’s 1831–6 voyage on HMS Beagle, captained by Robert FitzRoy, see Correspondence vol. 1. Coral reefs, published in May 1842 (Freeman 1978), was based on his observations during the voyage.
3
‘Surrounded by madreporic reefs that are without doubt entirely recent in formation’. Pierre-Louis-Antoin Cordier wrote ‘tout-à-fait’, not ‘tout-à-faire’, as did CD when he quoted from this line in Coral reefs, p. 127 n. See Dumont D’Urville ed. 1830–5, Histoire 1: cxi. Madrepores (order Scleractinia) are stony corals; Vanikoro is in the Solomon Islands.
4
No reply has been found to this letter. In Coral reefs, p. 127 n., CD wrote that he had ‘in vain endeavoured to learn some further particulars about this remarkable passage’.
5
According to the sale catalogue, the original letter is complete and is three pages long.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.14 as] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-609F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-609F