Ɛpsilon

To Linnean Society   23 June 1875

[Abinger Hall, Surrey.]

June 23 1875

I cannot recommend Mr Powell’s paper to be printed in extenso.1 It contains very little new matter; & as the author speaks in two places as if consolidated coral-rock had flowed like lava, it is impossible to trust his geological knowledge. He gives no precise information, which if given would have been of value, on the heights of the several islands

His view of the origin of Atolls is the same as that formerly held by Sir C. Lyell, namely that they are built on sub-marine craters.2 Nevertheless, as he seems to have found, more frequently than any other observer, volcanic products within the Coral Archipelagos, it would be adviseable to give a brief abstract of the paper. I would call attention to his observations (p. 13) on Fūnafuti, which though vague, seem the most valuable in the paper.3

A new plan moreover, of this island is given on the authority of Captain Turpie.4 The author speaks of a swamp as existing here, covered with scoriæ, & bounded on one side by an embankment of great stones; but he does not state that the fragments are too compact to have been driven by the currents of the sea. The author gives lists of the plants found on the several islands; but these seem to me hardly precise enough to be worth publishing; some botanist however ought to glance at the lists & decide on this head.

Charles Darwin

To the Council of the Linnean Society.

LS

1
Thomas Powell’s paper ‘Notes on the nature and productions of several atolls of the Tokelan, Ellice, and Gilbert groups, South Pacific’ had been read at a meeting of the Linnean Society of London on 15 April 1875 (Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London (1874–5): viii). The paper was not published or abstracted.
2
In Principles of geology (C. Lyell 1830–3, 2: 290), Charles Lyell had expressed the view that atolls were ‘nothing more than the crests of submarine volcanos, having the rims and bottoms of their craters overgrown by corals’. CD had countered this view, concluding they resulted from prolonged subsidence of the foundations on which they were based, coupled with upward growth of the reef-forming coral (see Coral reefs, p. 147).
3
Funafuti, the chief atoll of Tuvalu in the south Pacific ocean, was formerly part of the British Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony (Columbia gazetteer of the world). No abstract of the paper was published.
4
Roger Turpie was captain of the London Missionary Society ship John Williams (New Zealand Herald, 13 June 1896, p. 2).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10027,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10027