Summary

Would like to attend a lecture by JFR on "geography of plants with relation to the Himalayas".

"A grand battle" at the Geological Society between Sedgwick and G. B. Greenough.

Summary

Asks for permission to have a copy of the published Admiralty chart of the Island of Ascension. The engraved chart will add value to the geological observations to be published in the natural history of the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle.

Summary

Determined to make GRW a geologist. Sends copy of C. Lyell [?Elements of geology (1838)].

Summary

Responds to report of the referee [on his paper "The formation of mould"]. Strikes out a paragraph and wants to add a note. Asks WL’s advice about a sentence.

Summary

Has not been well.

Plans a geological trip to Glen Roy in Scotland.

Thanks WDF for remembering the crossing of animals, CD’s "prime hobby". "I really think some day I shall be able to do something on that most intricate subject species and varieties."

Summary

Would like to arrange a meeting about CD’s collection of shells [from the Beagle voyage].

Summary

Comments on receiving copy of Lyell’s Elements [of geology]. Much is new to CD, and he is copying out notes and references.

Criticises geological work of John Phillips.

Describes expedition to Glen Roy, about which he is writing a paper ["Parallel roads of Glen Roy" (1839), Collected papers 1: 87–137].

Enjoys the Athenaeum Club.

Criticises entomological work of F. W. Hope.

Asks Lyell to obtain for him a copy of barometric readings made at Leith.

Asks him to ascertain altitude of several Scottish lochs.

Comments on FitzRoy’s character.

Summary

Notification of submission of Smith, Elder & Co. accounts (enclosed) for first numbers of part II and part III of the Zoology, which are now published.

Summary

Report on R. A. C. Austen’s paper on the origin of limestone in Devonshire [Proc. Geol. Soc. Lond. 2 (1838): 669–70]. CD deems it not worthy of publication in Transactions.

Summary

Comments on an article in Edinburgh Review [by David Brewster, 67 (1838): 271–308] on Comte’s Philosophie positive.

Discusses falsity of Élie de Beaumont’s views of contemporaneous parallel lines of elevation and subsidence.

Owen’s views of relationship of reptiles to birds.

On "question of species" CD has filled notebook after notebook with facts, "which begin to group themselves clearly under sub-laws".

Summary

Submits the account of Smith, Elder & Co. for the second number of the second part of the Zoology.

Summary

Relates plan for an appendix to his Journal of researches which will include facts of species of birds’ being different in different islands of the Galápagos and also of the lizards and tortoises on the islands. Asks JSH whether he can supply parallels in the plant life.

Summary

Requests information for W. S. Macleay on JFWH’s method of catching pelagic animals while ship is under way.

Summary

Announces his engagement to Emma Wedgwood.

Summary

Announces his engagement.

Glad CW wondered at Glen Roy. "I saw nothing in my peregrinations to the Antipodes nearly so curious in physical geography."

Summary

Sends GRG a few pages of proofs [of Birds]. Asks him to make any observations that might occur to him and to check passages in French and Latin.

Summary

The Geological Society cannot recommend anyone to the Government of Newfoundland, but CD advises JBJ to get a recommendation from Sedgwick.

Summary

Sends proofs [of Birds, no. 2]. Asks GRG to check Latin accents.

Summary

As Secretary of the Geological Society of London, formally expresses his thanks for initial numbers of Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society.

Summary

CD informs AS of the position of the Council of the Geological Society on recommending J. B. Jukes for a geological survey of Newfoundland. Feels Jukes’s application would have best chance of success if Sedgwick, his Professor at Cambridge, wrote a letter.