To Charles Lyell 8 May [1855]
Down.
May 8th
My dear Lyell
The notion you refer to was published in Geological Journal Vol IV (1848) p 315,1 with references to all the cases, which I cd. collect of Boulders apparently higher than parent-rock.—
The argument of probable proportion of rock dressed by sea-ice, compared to land glaciers, is new to me.—2 I have often thought of the idea of viscosity & enormous momentum of great icebergs & still think that the notion, I pointed out in appendix to Ramsay’s Paper3 is probable & can hardly help being applicable in some cases. I wonder whether the Phil. Journal wd. publish it, if I could get it from Ramsay or Geolog. Socy. 4 If you chance to meet Ramsay will you ask him whether he has it.— I think it wd. be perhaps worth while just to call the N. American geologists’5 attention to the idea; but it is not worth any trouble, & I am tremendously busy with all sorts of experiments.— By the way, Hopkins at the Geolog. Soc. seemed to admit some truth in idea of scoring by (viscid) icebergs.—6
If the Geolog. Socy. takes so much to judge of truth of notions, as you were telling me in regard to Ramsay’s Permian glaciers,7 it will be as injurious to progress, as French Institute8
Ever your’s | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Collected papers: The collected papers of Charles Darwin. Edited by Paul H. Barrett. 2 vols. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 1977.
Geikie, Archibald. 1895. Memoir of Sir Andrew Crombie Ramsay. London and New York: Macmillan.
Ramsay, Andrew Crombie. 1854. On the geology of the gold-bearing district of Merionethshire, North Wales. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 10: 242–7.
Ramsay, Andrew Crombie. 1855. On the occurrence of angular, subangular, polished, and striated fragments and boulders in the Permian Breccia of Shropshire, Worcestershire, &c.; and on the probable existence of glaciers and icebergs in the Permian epoch. [Read 21 February 1855.] Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 11: 185–205.
Summary
Mentions his paper ["Transportal of erratic boulders", Collected papers 1: 218–27]. Discusses ice-borne rock. Reference to unpublished paper on icebergs [?"Power of icebergs to make grooves", Collected papers 1: 252–5]. Remarks on scoring by icebergs. Comments on judgment of theories by Geological Society.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1679
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.113)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1679,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1679.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 5