Ɛpsilon

From Henri de Saussure   14 March 1881

Genèva

14 Mars 81.

Dear Sir

I can at last send you the pebles which you asked me for last automn.1

The first box contains pebles of the strata in which I find roled romen briks, about 112 metre higher then the leval of the lake of Geneva, which prooves that the level has gone down about 2 metres.

diagram

I have mixed bricks, alpin pebles and sand because you told me you wanted to see the sort of form which the pebles take.2

In the second box you will find only sand and pebles, but of the opposite side of the lake where I have found the same briks than on the N. E. side.

I preserve a very agreable remembrance of my visit to your house, and I only regret that it was so short.3

If ever you think at me in a favorable moment, will you please do me the particular favour to send me your photograph with signature.

I should be much indebted for it.

Please remember me to your kind family and believe me yours most faithfully | Dr. H:’ de Saussure

I have forwared to you last month my little book La question du Lac; at the chapter érosions, you will find the bricks mentioned.4

CD note:

I speak advisedly after comparing the particles of brick sent by M Saussure | a few Geneva ones more perfectly pebble-like.

1
No written request from CD has been identified; however, the request may have been made in person (see n. 3, below).
2
In Earthworms, p. 254, CD mentioned that Saussure had sent him ‘small water-worn pebbles, formed from Roman bricks’.
3
No record of this visit has been found, but it may have taken place in the autumn of 1880 (see n. 1, above).
4
Saussure 1880; CD’s copy is in the library of the Linnean Society of London (Classmark: 551.48(494) SAS).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13084,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13084