To Richard Owen 23 December [1847–54]1
Down | Farnborough | Kent
Decr. 23d.
Dear Owen
A year or two ago, some one (I think Mr. Searles Wood)2 applied to me for teeth of Carcharias; & I then looked carefully & could not find a noble specimen, which I found in the older Tertiary beds at Coquimbo in Chile;3 & which I am almost certain I showed once to you (hence your vague memory of the fact) & which I rather think I left with you. If not at the College it is gone the way of all flesh—(a very inappropriate remark for a silicified fossil)—4 You would know my specimen by having a small number attached to it, if not removed.
I return with interest your Christmas good wishes.—
My old skipper FitzRoy exaggerated, I am sorry for my credit-sake to say, about that glacier wave & the boats,—which so nearly shipwrecked us & would have left us without, food or or arms above a hundred miles from our ship in the midst of most detestable savages.5
Very sincerely yours | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Summary
Is searching for a tooth of Carcharias which he might have left with RO.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13834
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Richard Owen
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13834,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13834.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 7 (Supplement)