From R. A. Blair 9 June 1881
Sedalia Mo.
June 9. 81,
Dear Sir,
After the interest you kindly manifested about the Geese you will not regret hearing they still reproduce the form of modified wing.1
I am pleased to state that one year last Octo. I had the good pleasure of exhuming from a small section, ‘say fifteen feet square’ of a pit in a small boggy place, the teeth and various other parts of 8 or 9 Mastodons: covering all ages and conditions. The collection is wonderful in a good many ways. Your British Museum mastodon is from an adjoining County. Benton.2
I keep my collection in my business House; and when I think of the thousands upon thousands who can not possibly see these without being bettered I am reminded of the fact that they are all indebted to you for it. What little stimulus I possess inciting me to an interest in such things came from Origin of Species.3
Believe me your Friends in my country are many and if the benefits you have done man were enumerated, verily—“The world itself could not contain the books that should be written” My little girl Jessie a six year old sits copying Plates from “The Crayfish”.4
Earnestly hoping you are recovered from reported illness5 and that many days of life with its assured blessings remain to you I am humbly, but very sincerely. | Your obdt. servt. | R. A. Blair.
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
British Museum (Natural History). 1904–6. The history of the collections contained in the natural history departments of the British Museum. 2 vols. London: the Trustees.
Huxley, Thomas Henry. 1880a. The crayfish. An introduction to the study of zoology. London: C. Kegan Paul & Co.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Summary
Mentions Mastodon remains that he has seen.
Praises CD and his work.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13200
- From
- Reuben Almond Blair
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Sedalia, Mo.
- Source of text
- DAR 201: 5
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13200,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13200.xml