Ɛpsilon

To Gerard Krefft   12 July [1873]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

July 12th.

My dear Sir

I write merely to thank you for your letter of May 3d, enclosing several curious photographs. I received, also, a little time ago the wonderful photograph of the natives of Queensland, & I never saw such hideous wretches.— The natives of New Guinea are Apollos in comparison.2

As Mr Wallace is the great authority on protective imitation, I sent him the Photo of the cocoon with your account, as it seems a very remarkable case.—3

Prof. Huxley was here the other day, but has just gone abroad for two months, as he has been much out of health: on his return I will tell him about the hopping Lizards.4

Pray believe me | yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

P.S. As you are so kind as to offer me information, will you observe & tell me, whether during rainy weather, (or at other times in damp & shady valleys) the worms throw up on the grass-lawns or plains, or in the woods many vermiform castings or little heaps of their earthy excrement? You will remember the appearance of lawns in the Spring & autumn in Europe.— In India I hear that the ground is covered during the rainy season with gigantic castings.— Is Australia too dry for the worms thus to act?

I have opened my letter to insert this, & shd. be grateful for an answer—

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Gerard Krefft, 3 May 1873.
2
Krefft enclosed photographs of a group of New Guinea men with his letter of 3 May 1873. The letter enclosing the photograph of the natives of Queensland has not been found, but they are mentioned in Krefft’s letter of 3 May 1873. Neither of these sets of photographs has been found.
4
Krefft had written to Thomas Henry Huxley about hopping lizards and had sent Huxley a skeleton of Chlamydosaurus kingii (see letter from Gerard Krefft, 3 May 1873 and n. 4). Huxley visited Down from 27 to 28 June 1873 (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 28 June 1873).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.4 Guinea] after del ‘Zeala’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8975,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8975