From William Boyd Dawkins 29 January [1870]1
R. S. Evans Esq,2 | Belvedere Park, Lessness Heath | Kent.
29. Jan 1869.
My dear Sir,
I just write you a line about the skeletons in the Cave at Perth y chwari near Corwen, because I have lighted on a fact of considerable ethnological value. The human skulls are indisputably of the River-bed type (of Huxley),3 the tibiæ are strongly platycnemic,4 and thus the bandy-legged-ness of the River-bed race is established. The bandy-legged race occurs in Algeria, S. France, & Spain, as well as in the laterite of India (.— Last year Dr Oldham5 sent me a scrap big enough to swear by.) and now must be extended to Britain. I believe that once they occupied a large portion of Europe. Busk and I are laying our heads together, and I think that we shall make something out of the investigation.6 At Easter I am to have another dig in Denbigh, and after that the Craven caves are in hand as you will see by the enclosed.7
Wishing you a happy new year, I am Dear Sir | Yours truly | W. Boyd Dawkins
Charles Darwin Esq.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Lucas, Peter. 2007. Charles Darwin, ‘little Dawkins’ and the platycnemic Yale men: introducing a bioarchaeological tale of the descent of man. Archives of Natural History 34: 318–45.
OED: The Oxford English dictionary. Being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement and bibliography of a new English dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1970. A supplement to the Oxford English dictionary. 4 vols. Edited by R. W. Burchfield. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1972–86. The Oxford English dictionary. 2d edition. 20 vols. Prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. Oxford English dictionary additional series. 3 vols. Edited by John Simpson et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993–7.
Summary
Discovery of skull of "River-bed" race of man near Corwen.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6582
- From
- William Boyd Dawkins
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Lessness
- Source of text
- DAR 162: 122
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6582,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6582.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 18
