To William Lonsdale   [15 May 1838]

My dear Lonsdale

I return my paper.—1 I have put a few pencil notes on the margin, which will explain to the referee, how much I intend modifying certain portions.— The whole I find requires a good deal of clarifying & polishing.

I returned from Cambridge last night.— I found Sedgwick very well & in high spirits, & therefore the sooner my paper goes to him the better.—

I have been looking over parts of Hopkin’s paper.2 I find in the latter part he refers to the diagram (No. 1. of mine)3 as a really possible section of a mountain chain, which, after what you pointed out to me, appears to me, clearly to be an inaccuracy on his part, although not of essential consequence. I shall get myself into a dilemma, with these sections, if I do not take good care.

I wish it was not too late to modify the title ⁠⟨⁠of⁠⟩⁠ the paper, as I have put it in pencil but that, I suppose, is altogether impossible.—4

Yours most truly | Chas. Darwin Tuesday Morning

36 Grt. Marlbro’ Stt.—

1
‘On the connexion of certain volcanic phænomena’, read 7 March 1838 (Proceedings of the Geological Society 2 (1833–8): 654–60). The revised version, as published in the Transactions 5 (1840): 601–31, is reprinted in Collected papers 1: 53–86.
2
Hopkins 1835.
3
Ibid., p. 41; reproduced in ‘On the connexion of certain volcanic phenomena’, Collected papers 1: 77. CD cites both Hopkins 1835 and Hopkins 1836 in support of his own thesis that ‘mountain-chains are formed by a long succession of small movements’ (Collected papers 1: 73–8).
4
The title was changed. In the Proceedings of the Geological Society it reads ‘On the connexion of certain volcanic phænomena, and on the formation of mountain-chains and volcanos, as the effects of continental elevations’. In the Transactions the paper is entitled ‘On the connexion of certain volcanic phenomena in South America; and on the formation of mountain chains and volcanos, as the effect of the same power by which continents are elevated’.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

3.2 possible] interl
3.4 although] before del ‘I’
4.1 as I … pencil 4.2] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-412,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-412