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From Charles Lyell   [before 20 November 1860]

Summary

Discusses the possibility of a land-bridge connecting Biscay with Ireland and the consequent occurrence in southern Ireland of Asturian plants which are absent from England.

Asks if Hooker or anyone has criticised Edward Forbes’ botanical migration of five floras in the British Isles ["On the connexion between the distribution of existing fauna and flora of the British Isles, and the geological changes which have affected their area", Mem. Geol. Surv. G. B. 1 (1846): 336–432].

Author:  Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  [before 20 Nov 1860]
Classmark:  DAR 170.2: 80
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2902

To Charles Lyell   20 November [1860]

Summary

Admires Edward Forbes’s theory of continental extensions, but it will discourage investigation of distribution.

Mentions Oswald Heer’s proposed map of Atlantis.

Discusses extinction of plants caused by the glacial era. Migration of plants and animals during glacial period.

Encourages CL’s work [on Antiquity of man (1863)].

Comments on unfriendly reviews. Asks CL’s opinion about including a reply to reviewers in next edition of Origin.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Date:  20 Nov [1860]
Classmark:  American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.233)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2989

To Charles Lyell   24 November [1860]

Summary

Comments on CL’s advice not to reply directly to reviews.

Describes work on his Drosera manuscript.

Work delayed on his "larger book" [Variation].

Comments at length on the evolutionary significance of Robert McDonnell’s investigations ["On an organ in the skate", Nat. Hist. Rev. (1861): 57–60].

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Date:  24 Nov [1860]
Classmark:  American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.234)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2996

From Charles Lyell   24 November 1860

Summary

CL has calculated that elevation and subsidence of certain formations in Sweden and Norway take place at the rate of 2 1/2 feet per century. He now proposes to estimate the age of a bed by including a conjecture that pauses occur in the oscillations in the ratio of 4 periods of stasis to one of movement. Applying this formula to Scotland, the last subsidence and re-elevation would be 590,000 years and the age of the beds with human implements would be 20,000 years.

Author:  Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  24 Nov 1860
Classmark:  The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/7: 40–8)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2996A

To Charles Lyell   25 November [1860]

Summary

Discusses elevation and subsidence of Europe.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Date:  25 Nov [1860]
Classmark:  American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.235)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2997

From Charles Lyell   30 November 1860

Summary

Satisfied that CD finds his conjectured rate of elevation and long periods of stasis reasonable, even if these periods cannot be estimated. Explaining upheaval by subterranean lava flow makes these pauses plausible. Suspects that mountainous areas move more than lowland and coastal areas. General upheavals or subsidence in Europe in glacial period are unlikely. Believes with Jamieson that there was glacial action in Scotland before its submergence and that it was equally mountainous then. Subterranean upheaval visits different countries by turn. Horizontal Silurian strata must have been submerged and upheaved. Rest has always been the general surface character. Believes, however, that the quantity of late Tertiary movement is against CD’s belief in the constancy of continents and oceans: perhaps since the Miocene period, but not since the Cretaceous.

Author:  Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  30 Nov 1860
Classmark:  The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/7: 49–57)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-3001A
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letter (6)
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Correspondent