Summary

"You will have been sorry to have seen in the newspapers, the disturbances & fightings with the New Zealanders. – I have lately been much interested in reading your chapters on the slow decrease in numbers … of these poor people. The case appears to me very curious, especially as the decrease has commenced or continued since the introduction of the potato – the relation between the amount of population & of food is hence inverted. It would have been a case for the great Malthus to have reflected on".

Summary

CD sends off his notes [corrections and additions to his Journal of researches] which he hopes ED will introduce [in German translation].

Summary

On ED’s planned edition [German] of CD’s Journal of researches.

Informs him of his forthcoming volume, Volcanic islands.

"I am well acquainted with your paper on Chatham Island ["An account of the Chatham Islands", J. R. Geogr. Soc. 11: 195–215], & … those passages on the very curious fact of the apparent specific differences of the birds there & at New Zealand".

Thanks ED for recognition of his "small labours in Natural History… . praise from men, like yourself, is the only, though quite sufficient, reward I ever expect or wish to obtain for my works. – I have lately had the extreme satisfaction of hearing that Hooker speaks highly of the accuracy … of my statements". Refers to Humboldt and Owen.