Ɛpsilon

To Symington Grieve   22 March 1882

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

March 22d 1882

Dear Sir

The subject of your Essay would, I think, be well worth pursuing.1 I have long known that stones were transported by floating Fuci; but I cannot remember my authority.—2 Perhaps cases are given by Lyell.—3 It is, however, quite new to me that stones are thus dragged along the bottom leaving a trail behind them.

I remain Dear Sir | Yours faithfuly | Ch. Darwin

1
Grieve’s letter has not been found. The essay was ‘Note on the physical effects produced by the floating power of some of the family Fucaceæ observed at the strand between Colonsay and Oransay, 25 August 1880’ (Grieve 1881).
2
Fucus is a genus of brown algae, formerly in the kingdom Plantae but now in the kingdom Chromista. In the nineteenth century the term was also used more generally to refer to seaweed and kelp. In Journal of researches, pp. 303–5, CD had discussed what he termed ‘kelp or Fucus giganteus of Solander’, which could support rocks. Daniel Solander and Joseph Banks had calculated the length of the kelp in a bay within Cape St Vincent, Tierra del Fuego, to be around 126 feet (see Banks 1896, p. 48). The alga is now classified as Macrocystis pyrifera (giant kelp).
3
No reference to stones being transported on seaweed has been found in the works of Charles Lyell.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13733,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13733