A Letter of ch. Darwin in Argentina

Abstract

RESPECTED SIR,

Your letter of August 30, with the papers which you were so good as to send me, reached me only short time since, owing to the protracted illness and absence from London of Mr. Morris, through whom they were sent. I have lately heard from Mr. Morris that you wish to dispose of your fossil remains on some pecuniary arrangement, which I did not fully understand from your own letter to me. I have given Mr. Morris my opinion on this head, so will not here repeat it; but will only say that I conceive the only feasible plan would be to send your fossils here to some agent to dispose of them. No society will purchase anything of the kind without having them inspected, and most societies only receive presents. Your specimen of the Muñi-felis must be a noble one; I suspect it will turn out to be a Machairodus, of which there are some fragments in the British Museum from the Pampas. I will endeavour to get your paper translated and inserted in some scientific periodical. Your account of the earthquake in the Pampas has surprised me; I never heard of one in any part further east of the Cordillera than at Cordoba. If you will inform me whether you read English I shall be happy to send you a copy (if you will point out some channel) of my Geological Observations on South America, lately published; I do not think it worth sending them without knowing whether you read English, which I fear is not probable. Your pamphlet on the scarlet fever I will present to the Royal College of Surgeons.