Volume 1
The life and letters of Charles Darwin : including an autobiographical chapter / edited by his son, Francis Darwin.
- Charles Darwin
- Date:
- 1887
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The life and letters of Charles Darwin : including an autobiographical chapter / edited by his son, Francis Darwin. Source: Wellcome Collection.
409/422 page 391
![Mr. Searle [?] at St. Helena), for it has often struck me as very odd that the cracks did not die out oftener upwards. I can think of hardly any news to tell you, as I have seen no one since being in London, when I was delighted to see Forbes looking so well, quite big and burly. I saw at the Museum some of the surprisingly rich gold ore from North Wales. Ramsay also told me that he has lately turned a good deal of New Red Sandstone into Permian, together with the Laby- rinthodon. No doubt you see newspapers, and know that E. de Beaumont is perpetual Secretary, and will, I suppose, be more powerful than ever ; and Le Verrier has Arago’s place in the Observatory. There was a meeting lately at the Geological Society, at which Prestwich (judging from what R. Jones told me) brought forward your exact theory, viz. that the whole red clay and flints over the chalk plateau hereabouts is the residuum from the slow dissolution of the chalk! As regards ourselves, we have no news, and are all well. The Hookers, sometime ago, stayed a fortnight with us, and, to our extreme delight, Henslow came down, and was most quiet and comfortable here. It does one good to see so com posed, benevolent, and intellectual a countenance. There have been great fears that his heart is affected ; but, I hope to God, without foundation. Hooker’s book * is out, and most beautifully got up. He has honoured me beyond measure by dedicating it to me ! As for myself, I am got to the page 112 of the Barnacles, and that is the sum total of my history. By-the-way, as you care so much about North America, I may mention that I had a long letter from a ship-mate in Australia, who says the Colony is getting decidedly repub lican from the influx of Americans, and that all the great and novel schemes for working the gold are planned and executed by these men. What a go-a-head nation it is! Give my kindest remembrances to Lady Lyell, and to Mrs. Bunbury, * Sir J. Hooker’s ‘Himalayan Journal.’](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b18031961_vol_1_0410.JP2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
