To V. O. Kovalevsky   17 May [1871]¹

My dear Sir

Many thanks for your very interesting letter of May 10^th.—² What a strange & curious life you & Madam Kowalevsky³ must have led during the last 6 months, surrounded by such wonderful events.— Many thanks about the crossing of the Tritons: I shall look out for the final result with extreme interest.⁴

My object in sending these few lines is to say that I wrote to you about a month ago, begging you to aid me in getting an extract from a German book, & asking you about your Russian Translation of the Descent.—⁵

I directed my letter to your old lodgings (I forgot the name of street & am writing this note away from home; the name began I think with an S.); & I put on the address “or Anatomische Museum der Universitat.”— If you do not receive please inform me; but I am in no hurry about the German extract.

My wife is reading aloud to me Hepworth Dixon’s Free Russia: it interests us much, but I do not know whether he is to be trusted.⁶

How hard & steadily you seem to have been working at palæontology: you will be admirably prepared for future original investigations.

My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch Darwin