Summary

In five days of geologising on St Helena, he found that the shells on high land had been mistakenly identified as seashells. They are land shells, but of species no longer living.

Can think of nothing but the return to England and his family.

Summary

CD has come home – little altered in looks and otherwise not a bit changed. He will go to London to be there when Beagle arrives, and he and Caroline will visit Maer soon.

Summary

Last four days have been spent calling on naturalists. Geologists have been kind, but zoologists seem to think a number of undescribed creatures a nuisance.

Will send his belongings to Cambridge, but eventually his quarters must be London.

FitzRoy is to be married.

Summary

His fossil bones are unpacked and some are great treasures. He has some geology to do: R. I. Murchison has lent him a map and asked him to look at a part of the country he has been describing.

Their only protection against having Harriet Martineau as sister-in-law is that she works Erasmus too hard.

Summary

Dinner at the Hensleigh Wedgwoods’. They have agreed to go over his journal. Henry Holland thinks it not worth publishing alone because it goes over FitzRoy’s ground.

His impressions of Harriet Martineau: "She is overwhelmed with her own projects, her own thoughts and own abilities."

Summary

Interested in Lyell’s address [Proc. Geol. Soc. Lond. 2 (1833–8): 479–523]. Asks what the points are on which CD and Lyell are fully agreed.

Inquires about the paper FitzRoy and CD wrote on missionaries ["Moral state of Tahiti" (1836), Collected papers 1: 19–38].

News of family.

Summary

Has just given a paper [on "Sand tubes"] at Cambridge Philosophical Society and exhibited some specimens. It went well, with Whewell and Sedgwick taking an active part.

Herschel thinks 6000–odd years since the creation not nearly long enough to explain the separations from a single stock.

Summary

Sends a number of questions (to put to his father), mainly concerned with transmission of diseases, between Europeans and natives, "people packed together", etc.

Is investigating how to get Government support [for Zoology].

Summary

His books grow in size. Hopes to bring out work on volcanic islands and coral formations in the autumn or winter. The Journal of researches will not be published until autumn [actually not until 1839]. Whewell and Lyell flatter him about it. Has given up all society.

Summary

Expresses her pleasure at CD’s engagement.

Summary

Describes his routine for a typical day – writing Coral reefs, studying German.

FitzRoy’s "Deluge Chapter" [Narrative 2, ch. 28] will amuse her.

His opinion of Carlyle’s Critical and miscellaneous essays [1839].

Summary

Had a pleasant week in London and is now enjoying Cambridge, where he is busy with work and social engagements.

Writes with great enthusiasm of his prospective trip to "the Tropics" [Canary Islands]. Henslow will cram him in geology. He is working regularly at Spanish.

Summary

Concerned over CD’s illness. His father strongly urges him to come home lest his health be ruined.

News of family and friends.

Twelve Tories elected in Shropshire.

Summary

CD’s fame is spreading: she quotes Henslow ["Letters to Professor Henslow" (1835), Collected papers 1: 3–16], and a passage in the Athenæum.

Adds news of family and friends.

Summary

Family and Shrewsbury news. Visits of relatives and friends.

Summary

News of family and friends.

Caroline repeats story told to R. W. Darwin of FitzRoy’s feeling of obligation to Captain John White, from whom he gained release to marry Miss O’Brien.

Fanny Biddulph has had a son.

Summary

Family and Shropshire news.

Summary

Send their thanks to JSH for allowing them to see the two letters, one written ten days later than any they have received.