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From Adam Sedgwick to the Geological Society of London   10 July 1837

London

July 10. 1837

Gentlemen

I have read Mr. Darwin’s paper On the proofs of recent Elevation on the coast of Chili and decidedly think that it ought to be printed. Also a paper by Mr. Caldcleugh on the same subject:1 but I think his version diffuse & unnecessarily expanded; &, if printed at all in the Society’s Transactions, that it ought to appear in condensed form.—2

I am gentlemen | Your faithful servant | A Sedgwick

1
Caldcleugh 1837.
2
A note on Sedgwick’s report reads: ‘Mr. Darwin’s was withdrawn 15th Nov. 1837 | Mr. Caldcleugh’s ordered not to be printed—15 Nov 1837’. No reason appears in the Geological Society records, but CD may have withdrawn the paper from possible publication in the Transactions for the same reason that he later withdrew his paper of 31 May 1837 on coral islands, namely that he did not wish to publish any results of the voyage of the Beagle in advance of FitzRoy’s Narrative (see letter to William Lonsdale, 3 August [1837]). Abstracts of both papers by CD were, however, printed in the Proceedings of the Society (see Collected papers 1: 41–3, 46–9).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-365,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-365