To Archibald Geikie 11 November 1881
Down,| Beckenham, Kent. | ( Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.)
November 11th. 1881
My dear Sir
I have been much interested by your account in Nature of the great “find” in the Lower Carboniferous strata. As so many Scorpions were found, one might hope for other terrestrial animals & plants, if some new places were searched by blasting away the overlying rocks.—1 But I daresay you would not think yourself justified in employing the officers of the Survey in such work.2 This leads me to make an offer,—& I hope & trust that you will not think that I am taking a liberty in doing so,—namely to subscribe £100 or £200, if you can find anyone whom you could trust to send, & if you think it worth while to make further search for the chance of fresh & greater palæontological treasures being discovered.—
If my offer seems to you superfluous or presumptuous, pray forgive me & believe me, | My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Summary
Interested in the fossil scorpions found by AG in the Lower Carboniferous strata of Scotland. Hopes further searches will yield more land animals and offers to subscribe funds to such a search if it falls outside the Geological Survey’s work.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13451
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Archibald Geikie
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 185: 134
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13451,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13451.xml