WCP4880

Letter (WCP4880.5281)

[1]

9 St. Mark's Crescent N.W.

March 22nd 1869

Dear Sir Charles,

I return you Darwins' letter1 with thanks. I have read Tyndall's2 books[?]3 on Glaciers very carefully, & believe Moseley's4 theory5 to be quite inconsistent with his & Forbe's6 facts. The whole cause and mode of the motion of Glaciers seems to be still a mystery, but I do not see that Moseley's argument in any way proves it can not be due to gravitation, because his experiment [2] on which his theory calculation is entirely founded, is one which seems to have been made under conditions such as never occur in a glacier.

Dr. Smith7 has returned the proof,8 but I am sorry to say has insisted on cutting out the last par. & quotation, on the grounds that it interferes with the effect of the concluding theory. I have taken out altogether the passage about the erect trees of supposed post glacial age, as there seems so much doubt about the [3] facts.

On the question of Glaciers, — Tyndall puts among his ascertained facts a conclusion, that a mass of ice, even on a level, will be spread out over the surface by superincumbent pressure, and of course must spread on the side of greatest slope of the ground. This will of course apply to the case of a glacier at or near a watershed supposing its thickness was great at that elevation.

Wishing you a pleasant Easter tour.

Believe me| Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

Sir C. Lyell. Bart.

1
Probably CD to Charles Lyell, 20 March 1869, in which CD comments on Moseley's work, and thanks Lyell for sharing an earlier ARW letter (ARW to Lyell, 13 March 1869: see WCP4878.5279). DCP-LETT-6672. Epsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection. <https://editorial.epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6672> [accessed 17 Sept. 2021].
2
Tyndall, John (1820-1893). Irish physicist and mountaineer. Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution in 1853; Superintendent of the Royal Institution 1867-1887.
3
ARW's word may be "book". Probably Tyndall, 1860, or one of numerous subsequent editions. Tyndall. 1860. The Glaciers of the Alps. Being a Narrative of Excursions and Ascents, an Account of the Origin and Phenomena of Glaciers, and an Exposition of the Physical Principles to which they are Related. London: John Murray.
4
Moseley, Henry (1801-1872). British mathematician, scientist and Anglican priest. Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Astronomy 1831-44.
5
Moseley, H. 1869. On the mechanical possibility of the descent of glaciers by their weight only. Proceedings of the Royal Society, 17(108): 202-208.
6
Forbes, James David (1809-1868). British physicist and geologist.
7
Smith, William (1813-1893). British lexicographer and editor of Quarterly Review 1867-93.
8
Anon. [Wallace, A. R.] 1869. Sir Charles Lyell on Geological Climates and the Origin of Species. Quarterly Review 126(252): 359-394. See WCP2225.2115, William Smith to ARW, 16 April 1869.

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP4880.5281)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Moody, Liz [2013-01-30] Transcription checked by Catchpole, Caroline [2013-01-30] Transcription checked by Lucas, Paula [2022-07-19]

Please cite as “WCP4880,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 8 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4880