Ɛpsilon

To Alexander Agassiz   1 [June] 18811

Down. | Beckenham. Kent.

Jan. 1st. 1881.

My dear Mr. Agassiz.

I must write a line or two to thank you much for having written to me so long a letter on coral reefs—at a time when you must have been so busy.—2 Is it not difficult to avoid believing that the wonderful elevation in the West Indies must have been accompanied by much subsidence, notwithstanding the state of Florida? When reflecting in old days on the configuration of our continents. the position of mountain chains, & especially on the long continued supply of sediment over the same areas; I used to think as probably have many other persons) that areas of elevation, and of subsidence must as a general rule be separated by a single great line of fissure, or rather of several closely adjoining lines of fissure.—3 I mention this because when looking within more recent times at charts with the depths of the sea marked by different tints, there seems to be some connection between the profound depths of the ocean, and the trends of the nearest though distant continents; and I have often wished that some one like yourself, to whom the subject was familiar would speculate on it.—

Believe me, Yours very sincerely. | Ch. Darwin.

P.S. I do hope that you will reurge your views about the reappearance of old characters, for, as far as I can judge, the most important views are often neglected unless they are urged & reurged—4

I am greatly indebted to you for sending me very many most valuable works, published at your Institution.5

Copy

1
The month is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Alexander Agassiz, 19 May 1881. The copyist evidently misread the date.
2
See letter from Alexander Agassiz, 19 May 1881. Agassiz had just returned from the Tortugas, where he had been as part of a research trip studying the fauna of the Gulf Stream. In an earlier letter, he mentioned that on his return home he would have to finish reading proof-sheets of his report on the Echini of the Challenger voyage, as well as preparing a map of the distribution of corals of the Tortugas for a report to the superintendent of the Coast Survey (see letter from Alexander Agassiz, 16 April 1881 and n. 4).
3
In geological notes, CD described lines of fissure parallel to mountain ranges in the Cordilleras (DAR 35: 233, DAR 36: 439); in South America, pp. 240–8, he discussed patterns of elevation, subsidence, and lines of fissure in relation to volcanic activity in the Andes.
4
In his address ‘Paleontological and embryological development’, Agassiz discussed the reappearance in various genera of sea urchins of characteristics that seemed to have vanished in previous epochs (see A. Agassiz 1880, pp. 395–7; for further discussion of this point, see the letter to Alexander Agassiz, 5 May 1881).
5
CD had a number of publications from the Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard and the University Press at Cambridge, Mass. (for example, A. Agassiz 1872–4).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12965,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12965