Ɛpsilon

To T. F. Jamieson   24 January [1863]1

Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E.,

Jan. 24th,

My Dear Sir,

I have just received your Glen Roy paper in MS., and it seems to me not only conclusive but admirably done and most interesting. I heartily congratulate you on having solved a problem which has puzzled so many and which now throws so much light on the grand old glacial period. As for myself, you let me down so easily that, by Heavens, it is as pleasant as being thrown down on a soft hay-cock on a fine summer’s day. There are other men who would have had no satisfaction without hurling us all on the hard ground and then trampling on us. You cannot do the trampling at all well—you cannot even give a single kick to a fallen enemy!

My seeing your MS. shows that I am referee, which ought to be a secret; but, as there can be no doubt about my report, there can be no wrong in my want of secrecy.2

With the most sincere admiration, pray believe me, | Yours sincerely, | Ch. Darwin.

1
The year given by the printed source is confirmed by the relationship between this letter and the letter from T. F. Jamieson, 28 January 1863 (Correspondence vol. 11).
2
Jamieson’s paper on the ‘parallel roads’ of Glen Roy, a series of parallel terraces running along the sides of the glen in Lochaber, Scotland (Jamieson 1863), was read at the Geological Society of London on 21 January 1863. Since CD had published on the subject in 1839 (‘Parallel roads of Glen Roy’), he was asked to act as referee (see Correspondence vol. 10, letter from A. C. Ramsay, 13 December 1862). CD’s referee report is no longer extant. Jamieson had argued that the ‘roads’ were the remains of a series of shores of glacial lakes, not, as CD had supposed, ancient seashores. See also this volume, Supplement, letter to T. F. Jamieson, 27 March [1862].

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3941F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3941F