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Darwin Correspondence Project

To W. E. Darwin   [after 20 November 1876]1

My dear. W.—

You will remember about the upright pebbles & my notion of interstratified gravel & frozen snow during the Glacial periods.— Geikie sent me his Grt. Ice Age, & I wrote him a very long letter explaining my views, & he says in answer he has thought much about it & thinks the view very feasable, instead of astounding floods all over the country.2

He is going to communicate my notion to Mr Skertchly,3 of the Geolog. Survey who is now at work on allied subjects in the Eastern counties. So that if the notion is worth anything it is safe.

The more I think of it the more probable the explanation seems of a most perplexing problem.

Yours affect | C. Darwin

Footnotes

The date is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from James Geikie, 20 November 1876.
See letters to James Geikie, 26 October 1876 and 16 November 1876, and letter from James Geikie, 20 November 1876. Geikie had sent CD his Great ice age (J. Geikie 1877).

Bibliography

Geikie, James. 1877. The great ice age and its relation to the antiquity of man. 2d edition. London: Daldy, Isbister & Co.

Summary

Has written of his idea [on the formation of the gravels near Southampton] to James Geikie, who thought it very feasible.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-10486
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
William Erasmus Darwin
Sent from
unstated
Source of text
DAR 210.6: 148
Physical description
ALS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10486,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10486.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24

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