WCP2282

Letter (WCP2282.2172)

[1]

Salins1 (Jura) France

22 feb. [18]77

Dear Sir

I am reading with the greatest pleasure & profit, your splendid work: "The geographical Distribution of Animals"2. Having paid much attention to Geographical Geology, for more than 30 years, and having past [sic] many years of my life travelling about, in both hemisphere[s], I have tried two very imperfect work[s] on the subject. One, I send you to day by post; is a very rought [sic] sketch of the Earth during the jurassic period, published 17 years ago3; it is extracted from a work, on the Jura formations all over the world, which will be without interest for you. But I beg you [2] to read, what I say about the dry lands and the oceans during the Jura period. You will remark4, perhaps, that I call attention, to the distribution of Lands during the other great geological periods; and that I intended to publish a whole atlas of Maps showing it. Until now I have not publish [sic] it yet. However several of those maps have been used, by my late friend the late Louis Agassiz5 for his lectures at the University of Cambridge U. S.6, with my permission; namely: the Earth during the Cretaceous period, and also during the New red Sandstone period.

In 1861, I published also the first essay of a Geological Map of the world7; I mean the first exact Geol[ogical]. Map; for my friend Dr. Ami Boné8 has published in 1845, a sketch, colouring all part[s] of the earth known or unknown, after theoretical [3] views9. Mine on the contrary is based & contains only facts, well studied; leaving in white all the unknown. That map in 8 sheets, was published without text. The edition having run out, I have published one year ago a Second Edition10, and this time with a Text in 4to.11

If I know how, I will send you with pleasure a copy of the Text, with the reduction[?] Geol[ogical]. Map of the World, and I will beg you the permission to call your attention, on several parts of it, relating to the probable distribution of Lands & water during the different geological periods. Please give an address in London, & the work will be sent to you at once.

I send you, a few remarks suggested by the careful reading of your work. I hope you [4] will excuse my boldness in doing so; but it will show you how interested I am, in studying your fine and good work.

Not being a zoologist, I have no opinion about the views of Lamark12 [sic], Geoffroy St Hilaire13, Darwin15 & yourself; only as a geologist, I am more of the opinion of the Cuvier's school14 in regard fossils remains. You see I am a candid man.

Excuse my bad english; but I am a frenchman by birth, and I have never being [sic] able to write, but broken English.

Very truly yours | Jules Marcou15, 16 [signature] | F.C.G.S.

address: Salins (Jura), France.

A.R. Wallace Esq[uire]. F.L.S15. England.

1
Salins-les-Bains, a commune in the Jura in eastern France, named for its saline waters used for bathing and drinking.
2
Wallace, A. R.. (1876). The Geographical Distribution of Animals; With A Study of the Relations of Living and Extinct Faunas as Elucidating the Past Changes of the Earth's Surface. 2 vols. Macmillan & Co., London. Vol 1: pp. i-xxiv, 1-503. Vol 2: i-xii, 1-607.
3
Marcou, Jules (1860). Lettres sur les roches du Jura et leur distribution géographique dans les deux hémisphères (1857-1860), Klincksieck, Paris. 364 pp.
4
The letter "k" has been written over another letter, the tail of which has been crossed out.
5
Agassiz, Louis (1807-1873). Swiss-American naturalist. Later Marcou would publish a biography of Agassiz: Marcou, Jules (1898) Life, letters, and works of Louis Agassiz, Macmillan and co, New York and London.
6
Agassiz emigrated to the U.S. in 1847 and became a professor of zoology and geology at Harvard. He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1873. Encyclopaedia Britannica <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/8791/Louis-Agassiz> [accssed 26 March 2015].
7
Marcou, Jules (1861, 2nd ed. 1875). Geological Map of the World. A 1:23,000,000 world geological map, leaving unmapped regions — most of Africa, Arabia, Asia and Australia — blank. < http://www.geoexpro.com/articles/2014/12/maps-for-understanding-the-earth> [accessed 2 March 2015].
8
Boué, Ami (1794-1881). Austrian geologist.
9
Boué, Ami (1845). Carte geologique du globe terrestre. Paris.
10
See note 8.
11
Quarto. The size of paper obtained by folding a whole sheet twice, so as to form four leaves. Quarto sizes range from 15 × 11 inches (approx. 38 x 28 cm) (imperial quarto) to 7¾ × 6¼ inches (approx. 19.7 x 15.2 cm) (pot quarto), according to the size of the original sheet. Oxford English Dictionary <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/156080?redirectedFrom=quarto#eid> [accessed 2 March 2015].
12
Lamarck, Jean Baptiste (1744-1829). French naturalist.
13
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Isidore (1805-1861). French zoologist.
14
Cuvier, Georges (1769-1832). His full name was Georges-Léopold-Chrétien-Frédéric-Dagobert, Baron Cuvier. French naturalist and zoologist.
15
There is a British Museum stamp in red ink above the signature.
16

Foreign Correspondent of the Geological Society. Marcou was elected a Foreign Correspondent of the Geological Society in 1875. List of the Geological Society of London. November 1st, 1876. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 76pp. [p. 49]. <http://deriv.nls.uk/dcn30/7735/77351065.30.jpg> [accessed 3 March 2015].

Foreign Correspondent, a stage below Foreign Member, was added to the Geological Society membership in 1863. <https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/Library-and-Information-Services/Archives/Archive-Collections/Business-papers> [accessed 3 March 2015].

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP2282.2172)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Ghosh, Susan [2015-04-08] Transcription checked by Benny, Ruth [2015-04-08] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10]

Enclosure (WCP2282.5186)

[1]

vol. I. p.77. Australian region & Australian sub-region; the same name for the whole & only a part!

p.78 The second, or Chilian sub-region. There is an error. On the <page> the number is

I for the Chilian sub-region, and number

II or second, is the Brazilian sub-region.

p.109&112. Confusion in regard the newer Pliocene.

p.111 <& on> Pliocene <dynasty?> & <caverns? in Algeria.

- — - — that the glacial cold did not extend so far south. Old glaciers have been found in Morocco, by Hooker & <Maro> near Granada in Spain, & even at or near Blidah in the Atlas of Algeria.

p.112. Pliocene of <Oninghen> [Aeninghen?] in Switzerland; and p.177, you say "Upper Miocene of Oninghen in Switzerland". The last [2] is the true age. Nothing Pliocene <is> at Oninghen.

p.123. Northern China; we do not know from what deposits these remains of Hyena, Tapir, <etc> come from. It is merely a guess.

p.129. Nebraska; it is now Dakota, by the new division of Western Territories.

p.129. After California, add Wyoming, New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado & Idaho.

p.134 & 160. Triassic coal of North Carolina; it is Permian (Dyas) older than the species of upper Trias of Wurtemberg (Stuttgart), & England. The Dromatherium sylvestre [sylvestris] of Emmons is certainly, until now, the oldest mammal.

p.166. Freshwater fish are almost unknown in the Tertiary deposits of Europe. But they are common at Aix (Provence) Oninghem, <Kronenberg>, Monte Bolca (Italie), Menat (Auvergne) [3]

p.166 the number of 1300 species of Miocene insects, has been largely increased, by Oustalet see his memoir on Insects (in french), in the Annales de Geologie Paris 1875

Distribution of Extinct animals; the authors do not notice anywhere the numerous foot prints or Ichnology, in the Trias of Connecticut, & in the Carboniferous rocks of Missouri & Kansas, etc.

[long serpentine cipher which may be a signature]

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Enclosure (WCP2282.5186)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Congerton, John [2019-02-21] Transcription checked by Congerton, John [2019-02-21] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10]

Please cite as “WCP2282,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2282