Dear Sir,

Feeling sure you will be gratified to obtain any reliable information or facts bearing on the domestication of animals as affecting change of form and producing varieties, I beg to forward, under a separate cover, a copy of the last no: of a very interesting little periodical published at HongKong, in which, in reply to a query I inserted after reading your section on Gold Fish, you will find the early domestication and ‘culture’ of these animals distinctly asserted, from Chinese literary sources.¹

In cases where you might desire information on Chinese matters, and the early & unbroken civilisation of the nation would, I imagine, render their testimony in regard to domesticated animals & plants of peculiar value in your laborious & wonderful researches, I think you might find it well to make use of this journal as a medium of inquiry.²

I am, | Dear Sir, | Yours faithfully | H. F. Hance.

Charles Darwin, Esq^re.