From Robert Patterson 18 October 1860
6 College Square North. Belfast
Oct 18. 1860
My dear Sir
I copy for you a note, that I hope may possess some interest.1 Should you ever think of publishing it, I think it would be only right to the gentleman who is my authority for the fact, to send a copy of the note to him for revision so as to avoid all chance of error.
I am Very truly Yours | Robert Patterson.
Chas. Darwin Esq
PS. Your old friend Ogilby,2 and Dr. E. P. Wright of Dublin,3 spent last Tuesday evening in my house.
[Enclosure]
Copy Augt 27 1860. When visiting the Copeland-Islands at the entrance to Belfast Lough this day, Captn Nesbitt RN.4 one of the Elder Brethren of the Trinity House,5 told me the following fact. In 1845, when the Trinity House bought up all the private Lighthouses round the Coast, the Skerries near Holyhead,6 had immense numbers of rabbits, which were extensively used by the lighthouse-keepers. A few years ago an American vessel was wrecked there, on board of which there were a number of rats. These swam to the shore. They have now increased prodigiously in numbers, have destroyed the wild rabbits, and are obliged to live in a great degree on the shellfish of the shore. The light-house men not only have lost the wild rabbits, but find a difficulty in rearing any tame ones, because of the attacks of the rats.
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
EB: The Encyclopædia Britannica. A dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general information. 11th edition. 29 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1910–11.
Natural selection: Charles Darwin’s Natural selection: being the second part of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1975.
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
Sends an account of the destruction of wild rabbits by rats introduced from a wrecked ship.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2954
- From
- Robert Patterson
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Belfast
- Source of text
- DAR 46.1: 89–90
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2954,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2954.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 8