From William Balfour Baikie 11 February 1858
Encampment near Kétsa, Núpe1 | Central Africa,
11 Feb 1858.
Dear Sir,
Allow me to address a short note to you with reference to your communication to me before I left England last spring.2 During our voyage up the river, & our residence in this spot I have been paying considerable attention to domestic breeds of animals, & I hope to be able to bring home specimens of most of them, & full accounts of all. I am in great hopes of being able to make a run as far as Princes’ or St Thomas’ before I return, as a Zoological & Botanical visit to these islands would be most interesting.3 I do not see why these islands should not contain some indigenous & peculiar species. Fernando Po, which is much nearer the coast of Africa does, especially of mammals & Birds. Of the former are 2 species of Hyrax, one or two Gazelles, & I think some bats, & perhaps a Pangolin, as one of these latter which I got appeared distinctive. I also got there specimens of a Malapterurus differing from that of Old Kalabar, as also from those I have since got in this river. Fernando Po is the only one containing an indigenous population, a very peculiar people, in appearance, in habits, & in language—4 I do not know whether you have seen a chart of the currents of the Gulf of Guinea, shewn at the R. Geographical Society about a year ago by Mr J. Campbell, Surgeon, R.N.5 By it you would see how unlikely Dr Daniell’s supposition is of animals having been floated to these little islands.6
I hope you will excuse me if I mention
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–.
Summary
Describes some species of fauna peculiar to Fernando Po. The ocean currents make it unlikely that animals have been floated to the little islands [off the west coast of Africa].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2214
- From
- William Balfour Baikie
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Kátsa Núpe, Central Africa
- Source of text
- DAR 205.3: 260
- Physical description
- AL inc †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2214,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2214.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 7