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From A. C. Ramsay   20 October 1871

London

20 Oct 1871

My dear Mr Darwin

I am very glad to find that you so far agree with my views.1 I am not surprised that my ideas abt the Red rocks are disputed. All theoretical papers are likely to meet with opposition when they do not coincide with established orthodoxy, and I have been very well accustomed to it before in cases that by degrees in 10 or 12 years have gathered many disciples.2 Therefore I am not as yet afraid about the ultimate success of the red rock theory, aided as it seems to me to be by other circumstances all pointing to inland waters. I ought to have mentioned in my paper that the red Marles of Auvergne form a case in point.3 I believe that the great area of inland drainage in Central Asia presents the nearest existing parallel of the state of parts of the world during Permian & New Red times.

If I could only find time to go to Germany I think I have some very good fish to fry in re the physical state of Europe in part of the Tertiary epoch. At all events I would like to prove to myself whether what I have been brooding on for several years is true or false.

Do not take the trouble to answer this unimportant note.

Yours very sincerely | Andw C Ramsay

2
Ramsay’s view that lakes could be created by glacial action had been slow to prevail (Ramsay 1862; see ODNB and Correspondence vol. 10).
3
In his paper, ‘On the physical relations of the New Red Marl, Rhætic beds, and Lower Lias’ (Ramsay 1871a), Ramsay had argued that the red beds of Britain had been formed in lakes and inland seas.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8026,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8026