Ɛpsilon

To L. C. Wedgwood   5 January [1872]1

Jan 5

My dear Lucy

Supposing that you have leisure during next 2 or 3 weeks, will you have a try with straight blunt knitting needle to ascertain, whether on steep slopes the worms come to surface at nearly right angles to the slope, or at nearly right angles to the horizon.—2

We have no steep grass-covered slopes here;—3 On nearly level surfaces the worms come up at all conceivable angles.— It wd be very important for me if I cd. ascertain that they generally come up at rt. ⁠⟨⁠s to the slope.— It is not easy to probe the holes.—

Yours affect | C. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from L. C. Wedgwood, 20 January [1872].
2
CD thought that if earthworms dug burrows at right angles to the slope, denudation would be increased (see Earthworms, p. 270).
3
Wedgwood lived with her parents at Leith Hill Place, near Dorking, Surrey.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.2 straight] interl
1.3 surface at nearly] ‘nearly’ interl
1.3 or at nearly] ‘nearly’ interl
2.1 On] ‘O’ over ‘o’
2.2 It wd] ‘It’ over ‘it’
2.3 probe] after del ‘probt’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8144,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8144