To Richard Owen [15 December 1837 – 9 June 1838]1
My dear Owen
I send you a box with Isle of Wight fossils from Fox, with a letter from him.—2 He will tell you their history.
These fossils appear to me a glorious fact. if any man a hundred years ago had said the time will come, when a naturalist looking at a heap of strata will be able to prophesy that bones of pig-like animals of many kinds are probably entombed there.—3 Would he not in the language of the Persians have been called the grandfather of all liars?—4
I forget whether I told you that Londsdale has some one or two teeth from the Isle of Wight, which he wanted you to see, in case you undertook the Eocene quadrupeds.—5
Balliere6 sends a parcel either on Saturday or at beginning of next week.— I have sent him a copy of 1st Isse for the Institute.7
Yours most truly | Chas. Darwin
Friday
Balliere charges about 1s〃 6d. for carriage
Footnotes
Summary
Sends RO a box of fossils from William Darwin Fox, from the Isle of Wight.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-418F
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Richard Owen
- Source of text
- DAR 185: 115
- Physical description
- ALS
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 418F,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-418F.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 13 (Supplement)