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* direct »Letter 335 — Lyell, Charles to Darwin, C. R., 26 Dec 1836
Comments on [MS of] CD's paper ["Elevation on the coast of Chili" (4 Jan 1837), Collected papers 1: 41–3]. Invites CD to dinner. "Don't accept any official scientific place, if you can avoid it".
* direct »Letter 343 — Lyell, Charles to Darwin, C. R., 13 Feb 1837
"I could think of nothing for days after your lesson on coral reefs, but of the top of submerged continents. It is all true, but do not flatter youself that you will be believed, till you are growing bald, like me, with hard work & vexation at the incredulity in the world."
* direct »Letter 367 — Darwin, C. R. to Lyell, Charles, 30 July 1837
Galapagos land birds and reptiles. No two naturalists agree on any fundamental idea [of species]. "Everything is arbitrary." Has been with Richard Owen going over the S. American fossils. Has worked out the non-relation between animals' bulk and luxuriance of vegetation. The horse once common on the Pampas. The mystery of the extinction of these animals.
* direct »Letter 376 — Lyell, Charles to Darwin, C. R., 29 Aug & 5 Sept 1837
Syenitic granite from Norway carried as far as Osnabruck.Has met warm reception in Germany. Leopold von Buch mistaken in believing that granite overlies transition rock in Norway. Granite sends veins into transition and gneiss. Has been examining fossil shells of Crag with Heinrich Beck. Beck admits some shells are of species still living. CL still believes Eocene, Miocene, and Pliocene are satisfactory divisions of Tertiary epoch.
* direct »Letter 394 — Darwin, C. R. to Lyell, Charles, [19? Dec 1837]
Responds to Lyell's query [missing] about northern and southern limits of coral islands of the Pacific. Warns that coral islands are much more thinly distributed than people realise and cites examples. Comments on views of Matthew Flinders. Reading work of É[lie] de B[eaumont]. Notes difficulty of setting an east-west boundary to coral islands.
* direct »Letter 402 — Lindsay-Carnegie, W. F. to Lyell, Charles, [14 Feb 1838]
Impressed by CD's theory [of earthworm action].
* direct »Letter 405 — James, R. B. to Lyell, Charles, [10? Mar 1838]
Sends four samples of dust blown on board his ship from the coast of Africa, nearly 400 miles away, during four days in March 1838. Gives careful descriptions and relates the tests he made of it [see Collected papers 1: 200].
* direct »Letter 424 — Darwin, C. R. to Lyell, Charles, 9 Aug [1838]
Comments on receiving copy of Lyell's Elements [of geology]. Much is new to CD, and he is copying out notes and references. Criticises geological work of John Phillips. Describes expedition to Glen Roy, about which he is writing a paper ["Parallel roads of Glen Roy" (1839), Collected papers 1: 87–137]. Enjoys the Athenaeum Club.Criticises entomological work of F. W. Hope. Asks Lyell to obtain for him a copy of barometric readings made at Leith. Asks him to ascertain altitude of several Scottish lochs.Comments on FitzRoy's character.
* direct »Letter 425 — Lyell, Charles to Darwin, C. R., 6 Sept 1838
Would like to talk over Salisbury Craigs with CD. CL's father enthusiastic over Journal of researches. Comments on Élie de Beaumont's theory of mountain elevation. Asks about parallel lines of upheaval and depression in the Pacific. Glad CD likes Athenaeum Club.Comments on methods of work.Invites CD to visit Kinnordy. Defends BAAS: "in this country no importance is attached to any body of men who do not make occasional demonstrations of their strength in public meetings". With respect to Glen Roy, notes existence of deposits destitute of shells.
* direct »Letter 428 — Darwin, C. R. to Lyell, Charles, [14] Sept [1838]
Comments on an article in Edinburgh Review [by David Brewster, 67 (1838): 271–308] on Comte's Philosophie positive. Discusses falsity of Élie de Beaumont's views of contemporaneous parallel lines of elevation and subsidence. Owen's views of relationship of reptiles to birds. On "question of species" CD has filled notebook after notebook with facts, "which begin to group themselves clearly under sub-laws".