Ɛpsilon

To W. H. Smyth   7 August [1839]

12 Upper Gower St

Dear Sir

I hope you will excuse the liberty I take in addressing you, after having only once had the pleasure of meeting you.

I am engaged in drawing up an account of the Coral formations of the Pacific & Indian seas, and I observe it is said in Krusentern’s memoir, that you were in the Cornwallis, when Smyth’s Isld in the Northern Pacific was discovered.—1 I am particularly anxious to know, whether the low islets & reefs, of which the group is composed, form a ring surrounding a lagoon, like so many other islds. in the Pacific, and the atolls in the Indian ocean:—or, if it has not a lagoon, then is one central island of greater height, & apparently of different constitution from the other low islets on the reef, & surrounded by a channel of deepish water:—in short whether it has any peculiar structure.—2 As I cannot obtain this information from any other quarter, if you would spare me a few minutes & send me an answer, I should feel extremely obliged and I trust you will excuse my having ventured so far to trouble you.—

Believe me dear Sir | Yours respectfully | Chas. Darwin 12 Upper Gower St

Aug 7th.—

1
Krusenstern 1835, p. 104, refers to ‘Smith’ Island, now known as Johnston Island, a coral atoll 16o 45’N and 169o 32’W. Smyth served in H.M.S. Cornwallis under C. J. Johnston when the island was discovered in 1807 (Dawson 1885, 1: 53 and Modern English Biography).
2
Smyth informed CD that there were ‘two very low small islands, with a dangerous reef off the east end of them’, but he could not recall if the islands surrounded a lagoon (Coral reefs, p. 158).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.5 other] altered from ‘others’
2.6 Pacific,] after omitted comma
point omitted after : 2.7 ‘island’; 2.11 ‘extremely’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-530,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-530