WCP2779

Letter (WCP2779.2669)

[1]1, 2

8th Oct[ober]. 1899

Dear Sir,

Perhaps it w[oul]d be well to add a few words as to Aeppli's3 views. You will see I have written out and somewhat altered & slightly expanded the essentials[?] in my letter. I have often[?] [1 word illeg.]. I read that those who think that crustal deformation can account or the great valley lakes & the Alps and similar regions never remember the fact that rivers have cut their way across deformations as rapidly as they are formed.

I'm afraid there is not much chance of Penck's4 Morphology5 appearing in English. I tried to influence a London publisher — & he had the book submitted to him — [2] but his conclusion was — it won't pay. Chamberlin's6 criticism of Lord Kelvin's7 Address is as you say, most suggestive. Have you seen Prof[essor]. Joly's8 paper "An Estimate of the Geological Age of the Earth"9. It has much impressed me. He gives Geologists 80 to 90 millions of years — and more nearly 90 than 80!

Yours Truly | James Geikie [signature]10

I am afraid I have made you footnote rather long — but I can't very well condense it, if I am to notice[?] Aeppli's views

There is a catalogue/reference number inscribed in the top right-hand corner of the page. It reads "54".
There is no address.
Aeppli, August (b.1859). Glaciologist.
Penck, Albrecht Friedrich Karl (1858-1945). German geographer and geologist.
Penck, Albrecht Friedrich Karl. (1894). Morphology of hte Earth's Surface. 2 volumes. Stuttgart.
Chamberlin, Thomas Chrowder (1843-1928). American geologist and educator.
Thomson, William, 1st Baron Kelvin (1824-1907). British mathematical physicist and engineer. Based on his calculations for the age of the sun and the cooling of the earth, his various estimates for the age of the earth (he ultimately settled on 20 to 40 million years) cast serious questions for Darwin's theory of evolution.
Joly, John (1857-1933). Irish physicist, pioneer of radiometric-dating.
Joly, J.. (1899) An Estimate of the Geological Age of the Earth. Scientific Transactions of The Royal Dublin Society, ser. II, vol. vii.
The official stamp of the British Museum is placed next to Geikie's signature

Please cite as “WCP2779,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2779