Ɛpsilon

To Thomas Bell   [26 April – August 1845]1

Down

Saturday

My dear Bell

Would you kindly take the trouble to send me a line (to 7. Park St. Grosvenor Square) to tell me Bibron’s2 address, without indeed, which wd be much better, you could tell me the two points, I am anxious about.—viz, the name of the Trigonocephalus3 from B. Blanca and secondly whether there be more than one species of snake at the Galapagos, & whether such have a S. American physiognomy.4

I am right, in thinking that you sent all my snakes to Bibron?

My reason for wanting to know is that I am preparing a second Edit. of my Journal for Murray’s Colonial Library.

I hope you are well; does not this rain gladden your heart, when you think of the meadows of Selbourne?5

Pray give my kind compliments to Mrs. Bell, and believe me | Ever yours truly | C. Darwin

Wd you let me have a line soon.—

1
The date range is that of the composition of Journal of researches 2d ed. (‘Journal’; Correspondence vol. 3, Appendix II).
2
Gabriel Bibron. Bell had sent CD’s Beagle collection of snakes to him (see Reptiles, p. vi) for use in Duméril and Bibron 1834–54, vols. 6 and 7: in vol. 6, p. xii, the authors acknowledge having received specimens from Bell.
3
Trigonocephalus was the then accepted term for a genus which included pit vipers. The snake in question interested CD because, though it lacks a rattle, it displays the rattlesnake’s habit of rapidly vibrating the end of its tail when irritated or surprised: ‘showing how every character, even though it may be in some degree independent of structure, has a tendency to vary by slow degrees’ (Journal of researches 2d ed., p. 96). In a note at the end of the volume (p. 506) CD reports that Bibron thought it to be a new species, which he proposed to call T. crepitans.
4
‘There is one snake which is numerous; it is identical, as I am informed by M. Bibron, with the Psammophis Temminckii from Chile’ (Journal of researches 2d ed., p. 381).
5
Bell, a great admirer of Gilbert White, had purchased White’s house, ‘The Wakes’, in Selborne, Hampshire.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

3.2 Murray’s] ‘M’ over ‘T’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-848,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-848