To Julius von Haast 28 January [1868]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
Jan. 28th
My dear Dr. Haast
I thank very sincerely for your letter of Dec 4th & for the Revd James Stacks answers.2 I hope that you will give him my most cordial thanks. Though the answers are few, they are decidedly the best & clearest, I have received from any quarter. I have had no answer with reference to any Polynesian nation, for Malays ought not to be so called.
I hope that you will be so very kind, as to remind him by enclosing to him the printed queries herewith sent, which are a little corrected.3 I shd be very grateful for a little further information from so good an observer as Mr Stack.— Accept yourself my cordial thanks, for I owe these answers wholly to your kindness.
I received some time ago your Report, & ought to have thanked you; but the [truth] is that I live in a constant state of overwork & fatigue. Your observations on the Glaciers are splendid, & your Report was excellently illustrated.—4
Many thanks, also, for the very curious photograph of the skeletons of the gigantic birds: everyone to whom I have showed it has been astonished.5
Most heartily do I wish you all the success in Science & in all other ways, which you so well deserve & believe me, | My dear Dr Haast | Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Haast, John Francis Julius von. 1866. Report on the head-waters of the Rakaia. Christchurch: government of Canterbury province.
Summary
Thanks JvH for J. Stack’s answers [to queries about expression]. Though few, they are the best and clearest he has received. Sends a corrected printed version of queries.
Belatedly thanks JvH for his splendid report on glaciers [missing].
CD lives "in constant state of overwork and fatigue".
Everyone astonished by Dinornis photos.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5808
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Francis Julius (Julius) von Haast
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand (Haast family papers, MS-Papers-0037-051-3)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5808,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5808.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16