My dear Lubbock

If I had written your address (but this requires a fearful stretch of imagination on my part), I sh^d. not alter what I had said about Hicks.¹ You have the support of the Pres. Geolog. Soc,² & I think that Hicks is more likely to be right than Bonney.³ The latter seems to me to belong to the class of objectors general. If Hicks sh^d. be hereafter proved to be wrong about his third formation, it would signify very little to you.—

I forget whether you go as far as to support Ramsay about lakes as large as the Italian ones; if so, I would myself modify the passage a little, for these great lakes have always made me tremble for Ramsay, yet some of the American geologists support him about the still larger N. American Lakes.⁴ I have always believed in the main in Ramsay’s views from the date of publication, & argued the point with Lyell.⁵ I am convinced that it is a very interesting step in geology, & that you were quite right to allude to it.—

Ever yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin