WCP7191

[1]

Down.

Bromley.

Kent. S.E.

March 20th [1869]¹

My dear Lyell

I am obliged to you for sending me Wallace’s letter, which I have been glad to read.— I did not pretend to form any opinion on Moseley’s or Croll’s papers; but the latter seemed to me very ingenious. As Mosely has studied mechanics all his life, I cannot suppose that he has overlooked the considerations specified by Wallace. I shd. have though [2] that the close, fine & parallel veins in the ice of glacier, along the planes of movement, & the regular & gentle curve, which a straight row of sticks soon & invariably assumes, were opposed to the belief that a glacier descended by a succession of abrupt-fractures first [3] at one point & then at another. But as I have said the subject is quite beyond me.—

What a capital book Wallace has published; his discussions on Geograph. Distrib. are inimitably good— I have not yet finished the book. I shd. think it wd have a great success.— I am working [4] very hard at many subjects.—

Ever yours | Most truly | Ch. Darwin [signature]