Thanks ACR for paper and comments on it ["On the denudation of South Wales", Mem. Geol. Surv. G. B. 1 (1846): 297–335].
Sends copy of South America.
Discusses action of the sea.
Criticises ACR’s views on sudden elevation of mountain chains.
Showing 1–20 of 38 items
The Charles Darwin Collection
The Darwin Correspondence Project is publishing letters written by and to the naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882). Complete transcripts of letters are being made available through the Project’s website (www.darwinproject.ac.uk) after publication in the ongoing print edition of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin (Cambridge University Press 1985–). Metadata and summaries of all known letters (c. 15,000) appear in Ɛpsilon, and the full texts of available letters can also be searched, with links to the full texts.
Thanks ACR for paper and comments on it ["On the denudation of South Wales", Mem. Geol. Surv. G. B. 1 (1846): 297–335].
Sends copy of South America.
Discusses action of the sea.
Criticises ACR’s views on sudden elevation of mountain chains.
Discusses the geological origin of terraces.
Mentions R. I. Murchison’s paper ["On the superficial detritus of Sweden", Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 2 (1846) pt 1: 349–81].
Comments on Tertiary beds of South America. Doubts that durable formations are now accumulating. Discusses formation of trap-rock. Notes effect of decomposition of lava; discusses action of submerged gravel on underlying rock.
Invites him to dinner on Saturday the 12th. Charles and Mrs Lyell, Edward Forbes, Richard Owen, and Thomas Bell coming also.
"Will you bring your map of S. America … and we will have a talk over it."
Asks ACR to establish height of Moel Tryfan in Caernarvonshire; "in my notice on this hill [""Ancient glaciers of Caernarvonshire"" (1842), Collected papers 1: 163–71] I give a very much less height than others". [See also another mention of the elevation of Moel Tryfan in "On the transportal of erratic boulders" (1848), Collected papers 1: 218–27.]
Thanks for ACR’s Physical geology [5th ed. (1878)]; delighted with its success, proving there is a large body of men in England capable of appreciating sound geological science.
Notes on worm action, and CD’s questions concerning source of nutriment for worms in ACR’s courtyard [see Earthworms, pp. 192–3].
Further details of pavement that sank from action of earthworms. There were plenty of castings, which first led him to think worms were involved.
Discusses geological foliation and cleavage. Urges ACR to read CD’s remarks on subject in his South America before ACR publishes his paper ["On the lower Palaeozoic rocks", Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 9 (1853): 161–79].
Grief at the death of Edward Forbes.
Comments on ACR’s "The old glaciers [of Switzerland and N. Wales", in Peaks, passes, and glaciers: a series of excursions by members of the Alpine Club, ed. J. Ball (1859)]. Discusses erratic blocks in the Jura. Notes views of Lyell.
Responds to CD’s queries about the thickness of various geological formations. [See Origin, p. 284.]
Responds to CD’s queries concerning faults; is sending sections of the kind he wants. The Merionethshire fault with a downthrow of 12000ft. [See Origin, p. 285.]
ACR has for years had a belief in mutability and transmutation of species, prompted by disputes over the nature of species and varieties, and the existence of representative species in space and in the geological record. Could not accept a Creator employing small miracles to make species differ just a little between formations. Has maintained that one would not expect to find fine gradations between forms in the fossil record, but only representatives of very populous forms. [See 2711.]
Pleased ACR likes Origin. Every geological believer is most important. A long, stiff battle is ahead for the new doctrine.
Has finished ACR’s article ["The old glaciers of Switzerland and N. Wales" in Peaks, passes, and glaciers, ed. J. Ball (1859)]. Asks the authority for glacial drifts in Siberia. Wishes ACR would examine the Glen Roy parallel roads and settle the problem.
Asks if it is certain that traces of organic remains have been found in Long Mynd beds.
No doubt about worm-holes in the Long Mynd, and they are certainly lower than J. Barrande’s primordial zone. Fossils in Laurentian gneiss.
Thanks for answer to queries.
Expresses intention of reporting observations of traces of life in the Long Mynd beds and asks permission to cite ACR on his recent discovery of fossils in the Laurentian marbles of Canada.
Urges ACR’s investigation of Glen Roy problems.
In his paper for Geological Society ["Glacial origin of certain lakes", Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 18 (1862): 185–204] he will prove that all the lake-basins of the Alps were scooped out by glaciers.
Would like to hear ACR’s new views on origin of mountain lakes, but cannot stand the hot, late meetings [at Geological Society].
Sends his paper [on glacial lakes, see 3450]. Falconer attacked it. Falconer thinks Himalayas confound the theory, but Hooker writes that it explains the absence of lakes there.