From Albert Günther 28 April 1874
British Museum
28.4.74
My dear Sir
Many thanks for your kindness in sending me a copy of the ‘Journal’. I am ashamed to say that I was ignorant of the existence of this recent edition which contains important additional remarks regarding the Galapagos.1 I cannot help thinking that the fauna of these Oceanic Islands, facts like those of the existence of the large Tortoises in the Galapagos and Mascarenes, are the strings by the aid of which we may be guided to an understanding of the forces of the creation & distribution of animal life.
Of course, now-a-days, we can account for the coexistence of different ‘species’ in the different islands of one & the same group. Also the existence of such giants of their kind in small islands can be understood, strange as it is. But the existence of an identical type (generic, not specific) in islands so distant, as Mauritius & the Galapagos, is a fact which requires a wild hypothesis2
Yours very truly | A Günther
Footnotes
Bibliography
Freeman, Richard Broke. 1977. The works of Charles Darwin: an annotated bibliographical handlist. 2d edition. Folkestone, Kent: William Dawson & Sons. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, Shoe String Press.
Günther, Albert Charles Lewis Gotthilf. 1875. The gigantic land tortoises of the Mascarene and Galapagos Islands. Nature, 22 July 1875, pp. 238–9; 29 July 1875, pp. 259–61; 12 August 1875, pp. 296–7.
Journal of researches (1860): Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of HMS Beagle around the world, under the command of Capt. FitzRoy RN. By Charles Darwin. Reprint edition. London: John Murray. 1860.
Journal of researches (1870): Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of HMS Beagle round the world, under the command of Capt. FitzRoy RN. By Charles Darwin. New edition. London: John Murray. 1870.
Journal of researches: Journal of researches into the geology and natural history of the various countries visited by HMS Beagle, under the command of Captain FitzRoy, RN, from 1832 to 1836. By Charles Darwin. London: Henry Colburn. 1839.
Summary
Thanks for recent edition of CD’s Journal of researches.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9432
- From
- Albrecht Carl Ludwig Gotthilf (Albert) Günther
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- British Museum
- Source of text
- DAR 165: 255
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9432,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9432.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22