Ɛpsilon

To Charles Boner   [before 8 January 1870]1

I have just received your two works, and have made some use of them for my present book; and I should have made more use of them had I received them earlier.2 You describe the grand scenery of the Tyrol most graphically, and it makes me long to be strong and young again to ramble over the mountains. My next book will not be ready for a considerable time, though part is finished.3

I am very much obliged to you for your very interesting letter, and especially glad to hear about the co-existence of varieties in the wild state.4 The fact relating to the variation of the wild boar is quite new to me.5 I hope I shall get your book soon,6 and with my best thanks, I remain, dear sir, &c., | Charles Darwin.

1
The date is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Charles Boner, 8 January 1870.
2
CD refers to Boner 1860 (Chamois hunting in the mountains of Bavaria and in the Tyrol) and Boner 1861 (Forest creatures). Neither has been found in the Darwin Libraries at CUL or Down, but CD cited them both in Descent.
3
Descent was published in 1871.
4
See Correspondence vol. 17, letters from Charles Boner, 25 November [1869] and [December 1869 – early January 1870].
6
CD refers to Boner 1865 (Transylvania: its products and its people; see letter to Charles Boner, 20 January [1870]). There is a copy in the Darwin Library–Down. This sentence of the letter, which survives only as a published transcription, may have come from a letter written after Boner’s letter of 8 January 1870, in which he told CD he was sending the book. See Correspondence vol. 19, letter from R. M. Kettle, 10 March [1871], for Rosa Mackenzie Kettle’s request to use some sentences of CD’s in Kettle ed. 1871.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7073,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7073