From Richard Owen   21 January 1856

My dear Henslow

Taking, as I intended, a final review of the Ipswich Museum Crag fossils before fulfilling your last wish of sending them by rail, in order to see that their names were attached, I was stimulated to make another effort to get beyond the generic name, in regard to Rhinoceros, Sus & Cervus: I have, in part, succeeded, and indeed so far, as to lead me to put together all my researches on the Crag fossils since the old Meeting of the Br. Assoc at Ipswich, in the form of a paper for the Geol. Soc., which paper I finished & sent in last Saturday night. I will let you know as soon as the night for reading the paper is appointed: it would be desirable to exhibit the fossils at that Meeting, after which there shall be no further delay in their return to Ipswich. I have often wished to have from you a brief statement of the circumstances which led to so interesting a practical & most profitable application of what at first seemed to be a purely scientific discovery, in regard to the fossils of the Red Crag—

What is its greatest known thickness, & horizontal extent? I hope I am not unduly trespassing on time pledged to more important purposes by these questions

Believe me | ever truly your’s | Richard Owen