To Robert Bell 14 April [1876]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
April 14th
Dear Sir
I am greatly obliged for your very kind letter. The discovery of the tailed man wd. indeed be wonderful, but it will probably (I shd. imagine) turn out to be the skeleton of some quite distinct animal.2
I have been much amused by your account of the man who wrote to me from Duluth & whom I answered. He walked all the way from London to see me, so that I had five minutes talk with him, & he was one of the oddest creatures I ever saw in my life, with some ability though only half educated.—3
I hope that Geology continues to flourish in Canada where such grand work has been done by the Survey.—4
My dear Sir | Yours faithfully & obliged | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Summary
Suspects that the reported skeleton of a tailed man is that of some distinct animal [see 10432].
Amused by brief visit of strange man about whom RB had written.
Hopes that geology continues to flourish in Canada.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10450
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Robert Bell
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10450,” accessed on 25 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10450.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24
