WCP2221

[1]

March 19. 1869

73 Harley St.

Dear Wallace

I am much obliged to you for allowing me to send your letter on the motion of ice to Darwin,¹ and will say more about it by and by— M^r. Croll²in reply simply refers me to the Phil[osophical]. mag[azine] June 1867.³ In that paper it does not seem that he commits himself to the post glacial origin of the upright tree lat. 75° for which he refers to Belcher British association report 1855 [2] page 101.⁴ He mentions also some erect trees in the arctic region found by M.Clure⁵[which are] only partly fossil, but whether miocene, pliocene or post pliocene neither Croll nor M’Clure decide. On looking back to Belcher’s⁶ paper I find him to say that it was the trunk of a tree that had probably grown there, but he adds at what date who would venture to determine. He says a much higher temperature must have prevailed when the tree grew and he says that skeletons of whales were deposited in the same region [3] at the height of 800 ft above the sea. He took part of the upright pine to D^r Hooker⁷ who thought it might belong to the white spruce.

You remember that Robert Brown⁸ decided that the cones which had fallen from the upright pre-glacial trees of the Cromer forest belonged to the common spruce. It seems to me a misstatement of the evidence for which neither Belcher, Hooker nor Croll are answerable to say that any upright pre-glacial tree has been found north of the Arctic circle. If you like to read Belcher’s paper or to look at Croll again, I will [4] lend them to you.

I am exceedingly obliged to you for your pa letter on lake basins⁹ & should be glad if you will read one or two comments when I have time to make them on that difficult question[.]

believe me | ever truly yours | Cha Lyell [signature]