Letter 5313
Bates, H. W. to Darwin, C. R.
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HWB sends a copy [missing] of Boutakoff's letter, explaining that the deer were saiga antelopes and the islands were new discoveries.
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Transcription
Royal Geographical Society | 15, Whitehall Place, S.W.
Decem 19
My dear Mr Darwin
On the other side is the extract you require. I presume ``saigak'' means the same as ``saiga'', therefore the animals were the saiga antelope. The islands were new discoveries; the Kirghises of the Aral shores did not know of their existence.
Yours sincerely | H W Bates
I am now reading Lyells 1
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- f1 5313.f1
See letter to H. W. Bates, 18 December [1866]. Bates evidently affixed a separate piece of paper with a short extract from the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society (Butakoff 1852, pp. 94--5) to the verso of the letter, but the extract is now missing. - +
- f2 5313.f2
In Russian, `saigak' is a slightly older variation of `saiga' (Saiga tatarica; SSRLI). - +
- f3 5313.f3
Butakoff found the saigas on a newly discovered island in the Aral Sea that he named Nicolas 1st Island. The Kirghiz are a Mongolian people of west central Asia who inhabit the area around the Aral Sea. - +
- f4 5313.f4
Bates refers to the first volume of the tenth edition of Principles of geology (C. Lyell 1867--8), which appeared in November 1866 (Publishers' Circular, 15 November 1866, p. 722).