WCP3559

Letter (WCP3559.3458)

[1]

Paris

August 27th.

Dear Sir1

I send the enclosed reply2 to your communication so that you may send it to the Foreign Office3 if requisite.

I understood from Sir R Murchison4 that he would make the application after he returned from the Continent & supposing he had not yet done so I had left a letter for him in the hands of Mr Petermann5 offering to attempt the exploration of the Snowy mountains in Eastern Africa, instead of going to Borneo, but leaving it quite to him & the society6 to decide which journey they would find most interest in.

The journey from Trincomalee7 to Singapore & from Singapore to Borneo would entail considerable expense & loss of time so under any circumstances [2] I should prefer waiting for another opportunity8—

The idea of going to Eastern Africa was suggested by Mr Petermann & I am quite ready to give it up or go on with it as the Geographical Society may think best.

I shall be back in London in about a fortnight — Thursday & Friday next I shall be at Chamouney9 where a letter will find me.

I remain | Yours truly | Alfred R Wallace [signature]

Dr Shaw.10

1
Shaw, Henry Norton ( -1868). British Royal Navy Surgeon and Diplomat; Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, London.
2
enclosed reply:
3
The Foreign Office of the British government.
4
Murchison, Roderick Impey (1792-1871). British geologist. A founder and several time president of the Royal Geographical Society.
5
Petermann, August (1822-1878). British geographer and cartographer.
6
The Royal Geographical Society.
7
A port city on the northeast coast of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon).
8
The words "1853 │Mr Wallace │August 27th" have been added in the upper right hand corner in a different hand.
9
Now spelt "Chamonix", a town in the valley of the same name north of Mont Blanc in the Alps, located in Upper Savoy, France.
10
The text "letter enclosed to the Foreign Office Sept — 5 — 53 — —" has been added in a different hand.

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP3559.3458)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Parfitt, Elisabeth [2012-05-21] Transcription checked by Brunnen, Claire [2012-05-30] Transcription checked by Catchpole, Caroline [2013-01-15] Transcription checked by Barton, Michael [2018-08-15]

Please cite as “WCP3559,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 21 March 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP3559