Ɛpsilon

To S. P. Woodward   9 [July 1860]1

Down Bromley Kent

9th

My dear Sir

I am very sorry to say that I cannot answer one of your questions.—2 Von Buch or Johnston’s Phys. Atlas would probably tell number of Volcanos.—3 I am nearly certain there are the best remarks of anybody’s on antiquity of sub-aerial volcano in Lyell Principles or Elements on Auvergne;4 I remember being astonished at their antiquity.—   Degradation would prevent any sub-aerial volcano in a recognizable condition being of excessive antiquity. St. Helena of which upper part at least is sub-aerial, struck me as of extreme antiquity. The Canary isld. from littoral miocene shells must as a volcanic group be very old.—5

I entirely & absolutely disagree with Von Buch’s elevation-crater-theory—indeed I think it proved false.6 As there are so-considered volcanic ash beds in oldest formations, viz Silurian, no doubt sub-aerial Volcanos has always existed,—or at least probably, for on reflexion I do not suppose volcanic mud & ashes when stratified under water could be distinguished.—

I am very glad to hear about your Brother.7

I am sorry that I cannot answer your queries.—

In Haste | Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin

The Cordillera were volcanic with islands since early part of Cretaceous period or older; but I do not say that the volcanoes were sub-aerial—some stream however flowed in not deep water—8

Iceland from Miocene plants must have been volcano since that period— I suspect that this oldest ascertained volcano.—

1
The date is given by the reference to Woodward’s brother (see n. 7, below) and by a note written on the manuscript in an unidentified hand that reads: ‘To S. P. Woodward | 1860 | British Museum’.
2
Woodward was preparing an article on volcanoes for the eighth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (S. P. Woodward 1860). In the article, he cited information from CD’s Volcanic islands. He also discussed CD’s views on the elevation and subsidence of segments of the earth’s crust (S. P. Woodward 1860, pp. 606–7).
3
The reference is to Buch 1836 (the French translation of Buch 1825) and to Johnston ed. 1856. Christian Leopold von Buch described in this work his theory of the formation of volcanic craters and gave a list of the principal volcanoes of the globe. Alexander Keith Johnston’s edition of the Physikalischer Atlas of Heinrich Karl Wilhelm Berghaus included a double-page plate of volcanoes. Woodward referred to both these works in S. P. Woodward 1860, p. 603. He also cited CD’s map of active volcanic vents published in Coral reefs.
4
CD probably refers to the ninth edition of Charles Lyell’s Principles of geology (C. Lyell 1853), a copy of which is in the Darwin Library–CUL. Lyell’s Manual of geology discussed the volcanoes of the Auvergne in some detail (C. Lyell 1855, pp. 550–9). A copy of this work is also in the Darwin Library–CUL.
5
Woodward discussed the antiquity of volcanic vents in S. P. Woodward 1860, p. 606.
6
CD had expressed his disbelief in Buch’s theory as early as 1844, when Buch and Lyell had first debated the formation of volcanic craters. See Correspondence vols. 2 and 4. In his article, Woodward stated that Buch’s theory had ‘lost its popularity’ owing to Lyell’s and CD’s criticism, but he found it difficult to believe that huge craters could have formed the base of volcanic cones, as Lyell’s theory required (S. P. Woodward 1860, p. 605).
7
Bernard Bolingbroke Woodward, S. P. Woodward’s older brother, was appointed librarian in ordinary to Queen Victoria at a ceremony at Windsor Castle on 2 July 1860 (DNB).
8
CD’s point was discussed in S. P. Woodward 1860, p. 606.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.3 the best] ‘the’ interl
1.6 of which] ‘of’ interl
2.2 volcanic] interl
2.3 sub-ærial] interl
2.3 at] over illeg
5.1 In Haste] added
6.3 flowed] after del ‘water’
7.1 Iceland] after del ‘Eo’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2630,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2630