WCP2478

Letter (WCP2478.2368)

[1]1

Telegraph & Rail2,

Shoreham, Kent.

L. C. & D. RLY.3

2[n]d. Dec[embe]r. [18]93

DARENT-HULME4,

SHOREHAM,

SEVENOAKS.

Dear Mr. Wallace

I was glad to hear your remarks on the time argument. The subject is a very difficult one and in the absence of definite data we can only hope to make approximate estimates. Of course we cannot take the Greeenland rate of glacier [2] advance5 as a standard but we can take it as evidence of what might be a rate for a time.

There will be as you observe checks and stops which must reduce the maximum. If you will turn to p.14 of my paper you will see that I have allowed for that but whether or not I have allowed enough may be a question. In my mind all the [3]6 Geol[ogical].evidence tends to shorten Croll's periods7 — The One great value of the Greenland observations lies in this. Geologists had determined upon the Alpine observations that the rate of growth or advance of glacier ice might be estimated at a maximum of say about 36 feet per annum. In accordance with this Croll's periods were adopted. Now if8 [4] such results were thought attributable to reconci[l]able with a 36 f[oo]t. advance surely that assumption must be modified if it is shown that the advance may have been at the rate of say 36 f[oo]t. per day instead of per annum.

Please accept a copy of my paper in Phil[osophical] Trans[actions]9 just out in which I give further reasons for a more limited chronology & believe me to be

Very truly yours, | Joseph Prestwich10 [signature]

1
Text in another hand in the top right corner reads "314".
2
The spread of the railway in Victorian Britain was closely linked to the development of the electric telegraph. The first operational telegraph system linked Euston station and Camden town, and from there it spread all over the railway network, used both to carry messages and to control signalling. BBC History <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/victorian_technology_01.shtml> [accessed 12 August 2015].
3
The London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) was a railway company in south-east England created in 1859. Its lines ran through London and Kent and formed part of the Greater London commuter network. Wikipedia.
4
Sir Joseph Prestwich built the house Darent-Hulme, high on the downs above the village of Shoreham in Kent in 1865. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
5
Recent Danish scientific expeditions to Greenland had challenged data from earlier research in the Alps regarding the rate of ice movement. Prestwich discussed this in his paper, Prestwich, Joseph. (1887). Considerations on the Date, Duration, and Conditions of the Glacial Period, with reference to the Antiquity of Man. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, Vol 43 , 1887, Longmans, Green, and Co., London: 754 pp, [pp. 393-410]. <http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/173080#page/6/mode/1up> [accessed 10 August 2015].
6
Text in another hand in the top right corner reads "315".
7
James Croll (1821-1890). Geologist, and climatologist. ODNB. Croll proposed the astronomical causation of ice ages, with a period of about 26,000 years. Oxford Reference. A Dictionary of Scientists <http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095648967> [accessed 12 August 2015].
8
There is a British Museum stamp in red ink at the bottom of the page.
9
Prestwich, Joseph. (1893). On the Evidences of a Submergence of Western Europe, and of the Mediterranean Coasts, at the Close of the Glacial or so-called Post-glacial Period, and immediately preceeding the Neolithic or Recent Period. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Vol. 184, 1 January 1893: 904-984.
10
Prestwich, Sir Joseph (1812-1896). Geologist. ODNB.

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Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP2478.2368)]

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Revision history

Transcribed by Ghosh, Susan [2018-08-15]

Please cite as “WCP2478,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2478