To Charles Lyell   20 October [1861]

My dear Lyell

Notwithstanding the Orchids, I have been very glad to see Jamieson’s letter: no doubt, as he says, certainty will soon be reached.¹

With respect to the minor point of Glen Roy, I cannot feel easy with a mere barrier of ice; there is so much sloping stratified detritus in the valleys: I remember that you somewhere have stated that a running stream soon cuts deeply into a glacier.— I have been hunting up all old references & pamphlets &c on shelves in Scotland & will send them off to M^r. J., as they may possibly be of use to him; if he continues the subject. The Eildon Hills ought to be especially examined. Amongst M.S. I came across a very old letter from me to you, in which I say “If a glacialist admitted that the sea, before the formation of the shelves, covered the country (which would account for the land-straits above the level of the shelves) & if he admitted that the land gradually emerged; & if he supposed that his lakes were banked up by ice alone, he would make out, in my opinion, the best case against the marine origin of the Shelves”.—² This seems very much what M^r J. & you have come to. The whole Glacial Theory is really a magnificent subject.—

I have been working terribly hard lately (for me) at Orchids. The subject is, I fear, too complex for the Public & I fear I have made a great mistake in not keeping to my first intention of sending it to Linnean Soc^y.; but it is now too late, & I must make the best of a bad job.—

Yours affec^y | C. Darwin