Summary

There is a possibility of establishment of a Government Museum at Calcutta, with which the Asiatic Society Museum would be merged. EB would like the curatorship but fears other possible applicants. Asks CD to represent him to W. H. Sykes.

Discusses the ancients’ awareness of various cats as deduced from the etymology of their names.

Summary

List of mountains with their heights.

Summary

The [Megatherium] fossils were extremely interesting and were shown at the Geological Section of the BAAS meeting at Cambridge [1833].

The plants delight him; will work them out with W. J. Hooker.

CD should send every fossil he can find; minute insects will be nearly all new. Delighted with descriptions of the few animals alluded to.

Summary

Writes of the pleasure all feel in CD’s continued good health and joy in his voyage.

Tells of the banana tree he bought, which he sits under and thinks of CD "in similar shade".

CD’s financial accounts are correct.

Summary

Captain Beaufort has offered to get one more letter to CD before the long voyage around the Horn;

SD brings family news up to date.

Summary

Informs JSH that a Spanish friend has offered him a cargo of bones. If they arrive, he has arranged with Edward Lumb to forward them to JSH. [Forwarded to JSH with 244.]

Summary

Mainly news of the family and friends. Their joy at the abolition of slavery.

Summary

Sending shot or powder is illegal, but all CD’s goods and chattels have been sent. EL’s services to CD are what any Englishman should do for his country.

Summary

Describes his trip to north of Santa Fé, his illness, and return by boat to Buenos Aires – which he found in the throes of a revolution. Covington is cut off from the town, which some expect to be plundered.

Summary

Writes of his ride from Rio Negro to Bahia Blanca and Buenos Aires, which he undertook in order to learn the geology of the land, so full of bones of large extinct quadrupeds.

Summary

Acknowledges receipt of two letters from CD and a box of specimens.

Mentions attendance at BAAS meeting and a gift to him of a small living near Oxford. Some political news.

Congratulates CD on the work he has done – the specimens are of great interest. Gives advice on packing, labelling, and future collecting and suggests that – as a precaution – CD send home a copy of his notes on the specimens.

Summary

Finds CD’s journal very entertaining and interesting, but thinks his style in first part too much influenced by Humboldt.

Sends some books by Harriet Martineau and Archbishop Whately.

Rejoices that the more he sees of Negroes, the better he thinks of them.

Summary

Urges CD to visit Flores Island near Montevideo if he has not already done so. Describes formation of greenstone and the granite formations on small islands in the Uruguay channel.

Sends specimens from Pôrto Alegre [Brazil] for identification by CD.

Summary

News of family and friends.

Summary

Has been working hard on collecting English and foreign birds. Yarrell has written of new birds discovered in England.

News of work in progress by Leonard Jenyns, P. J. Selby, and John Gould.

Cautions CD to beware of insects when he sends any birds’ skins – otherwise there will be only feathers, beaks, and legs remaining when he returns.

Summary

Mentions letters sent in parcel and those from CD received by Fox and Henslow. Adds news of family and friends.

Appreciation of his journal. She hears that CD’s "theory of the Earth" is the same as Lyell’s in 3d volume [of Principles of geology (1833)].