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Darwin Correspondence Project

To ?   25 November [1861–8]1

Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.

[Nov] 25

Dear Sir

I have just read your notice on bent cleavage;2 & it has occurred to me that you might possibly like to hear that I observed the same fact in Chili. You will find a brief notice of this subject in my Geological Observations on South America 1846 footnote page 160.3 In case you thought it worth while to refer to the passage, you will find a copy of this book at the Geolog. Soc.4 I have suggested as a conjectural explanation the action of earthquakes. I presume that in a district lying for instance south of a volcanic focus the vibrations wd travel across the country in a nearly regular manner.

Pray do not trouble yourself to acknowledge the receipt of this as I do not know whether it is worth sending, & I beg leave to remain, dear Sir, | yours faithfully | Charles Darwin

Footnotes

The date range is established by the printed stationery, which is a type that CD used between May 1861 and April 1869. The month is ambiguous; it looks as if the amanuensis may have tried to write an ‘N’ over a ‘D’; the final two letters are ‘ov’.
The notice has not been identified.
See South America, pp. 160–1 n. 23. By ‘bent cleavage’ CD means the bending of the tops of the laminae of clay-slate.

Summary

Has read correspondent’s notice on bent cleavage. Refers him to observations on the same fact in South America, p. 160. CD has also suggested a conjectural explanation.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-13881
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Unidentified
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI MS F/1/M)
Physical description
LS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13881,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13881.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 18 (Supplement)

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