Ɛpsilon

To T. M. Reade   22 September 1880

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | (Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.)

Sept. 22d. 1880

My dear Sir

I am much obliged for your note & paper, which I shall be very glad to read.1 I am not a fair judge, but I agree with you exactly that Mr. Murray’s view is ‘far-fetched’. It is astonishing that there shd. be rapid dissolution of C. of Lime at great depths & near the surface, but not at intermediate depths, where he places his mountain-peaks.—2

Dear Sir. Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

2
See letter from T. M. Reade, 21 September 1880 and n. 2. John Murray (1841–1914) argued, contrary to CD’s theory in Coral reefs, that reef formation could be explained without subsidence or elevation; his conclusions were based on samples and measurements taken during the Challenger expedition (Murray 1880).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added
1.2 Mr. Murray’s] above del ‘his’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12721,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12721