Darwin Correspondence Project

36 Grt. Marlbro' St.

Aug. 9th

My dear Lyell

I did not write to you at Norwich for I thought I should have more to say, if I waited a few more days.— Very many thanks for the present of your elements, which I received, (& I believe the very first copy distributed) together with your note.— I have read it through every word & am full of admiration of it.— as I now see no geologist I must talk to you about it. There is no pleasure in reading a book if one cannot have a good talk over it.— I repeat I am full of admiration at it.— it is as clear as daylight,—in fact I felt in many parts some mortification at thinking, how geologists have laboured & struggled at proving what seems, as you have put it, so evidently probable.— I read with much interest your sketch of the secondary deposits.— you have contrived to make it quite “juicy”, as we used to say as children of a good story.— There was also much new to me, & I have to copy out some fifty notes & references. It must do good;—the hereticks against common sense must yield— Phillips will not surely go on saying that the metamorphic schists are disintegrated granite redeposited. By the way do you recollect my telling you, how much I disliked the manner Phillips referred to his other works, as much as to say, “you must, ought & shall buy everything I have written”. To my mind, you have somehow quite avoided this.— your references only seem to say “I cant tell you all in this work, else I would, so you must go to the Principle,” & many a one, I trust, you will send there, & make them like me adorers of the good science of rock-breaking. You see I am in a fit of enthusiasm; & good cause I have to be, when I find, you have made such infinitely more use of my journal than I could have anticipated.— I will say no more about the book, for it is all praise.— I must, however, admire the elaborate honesty with which you quote the words of all living & dead geologists.—

I came up to town on Wednesday night, just two days after you went; & very much disappointed I was to find by your card you were gone.— I thought youhad intended coming to town after your crag expedition, so I had made sure of seeing you, & having some geological talk.— I was very near writing to you from Shrewsbury, but I thought you would be busy & I denied myself the pleasure. My Scotch expedition answered brilliantly.— my trip in the steam packet was absolutely pleasant, & I enjoyed the spectacle, wretch that I am, of two ladies & some small children quite sea sick, I being well. Moreover on my return from Glasgow to Liverpool, I triumphed in a similar manner over some full grown men.— I staid one whole day in Edinburgh, or more truly on Salisbury Craigs.— I want to hear, some day, what you think about that classical ground:—the structure was to me new & rather curious,—that is if I understand it right.— I crossed from Edinburgh in gigs & carts, (& carts without springs as I never shall forget) to Loch Leven,—was disappointed in the scenery—& reached Glen Roy on Saturday evening, one week after leaving Marlborough St.— Here I enjoyed five days of the most beautiful weather, with gorgeous sunsets, & all nature looking as happy, as I felt.— I wandered over the mountains in all directions & examined that most extraordinary district.— I think without any exception,—not even the first volcanic island, the first elevated beach, or the passage of the Cordillera, was so interesting to me, as this week. It is far the most remarkable area I ever examined.— I have fully convinced myself, (after some doubting at first) that the shelves are sea-beaches,—although I could not find a trace of a shell, & I think I can explain away most, if not all, the difficulties. I found a piece of a road in another valley, not hitherto observed, which is important; & I have some curious facts about erratic blocks, one of which was perched up on a peak 2200 ft above the sea.— I am now employed in writing a paper on the subject, which, I find very amusing work, excepting that I cannot anyhow condense it into reasonable limits. At some future day I hope to talk over some of the conclusions, with you which the examination of Glen Roy has led me to. Now I have had my talk out, I am much easier, for I can assure you Glen Roy has astonished me.—

I am living very quietly, & therefore pleasantly & am crawling on slowly, but steadily with my work. I have come to one conclusion, which you will think, proves me to be a very sensible man,—namely that whatever you say, proves right; and as a proof of this, I am coming into your way of only working about two hours at a spell; I then go out, & do my business in the streets, return & set to work again, & thus make two separate days out of one.— The new plan answers capitally.— After the second half day is finished, I go & dine at the Athenæum like a gentleman, or rather like a Lord, for I am sure the first evening I sat in that great drawing room, all on a sofa by myself, I felt just like a duke.— I am full of admiration at the Athenæum; one meets so many people there, that one likes to see.— The very first time I dined there, (ie last week) I met Dr Fitton at the door & he got together quite a party, Robert Brown (who is gone to Paris & Auvergne) Macleay & Dr Boot.— Your helping me into the Athenæum has not been thrown away, & I enjoy it the more, because I fully expected to detest it.—

I am writing you a most unmerciful letter; but I shall get Owen to take it to Newcastle.— If you have a mind to be a very generous man, you will write to me from Kinnordy & tell me some Newcastle news, as well as about the Crag, & about yourself & Mrs Lyell & every thing else in the world— I will send by Hall the Entomological Transactions,—which I have borrowed for you. You will be disappointed in Hope's papers, that is if you suppose my dear friend has a single clear idea upon any one subject.— He has so involved recent insects & true fossil insects in one table, that I fear you will not make much out of it—though it is a subject, which ought, I should think, to come into the Principles. You will be amused at some of the ridiculo-sublime passages in the papers, & no doubt will feel acutely a sneer there is at yourself.

I have heard from more than one quarter, that quarrelling is expected at Newcastle. I am sorry to hear it. I met old Jones this evening at the Athenæum, & he muttered something about writing to you, or some one on the subject.— I am, however all in the dark,—I suppose, however, I shall be illuminated for I am going to dine with him, in a few days, as my inventive powers failed in making any excuse. A friend of mine dined with him, the other day, a party of four, & they finished ten bottles of wine,—a pleasant prospect for me; but I am determined not even to taste his wine, partly for the fun of seeing his infinite disgust & surprise.—

If you should see anyone at Newcastle, whom you know pretty well from Edinburgh, I should be very much obliged if you could (without giving yourself, or asking your friend to take much trouble) obtain for me a copy of the two-hourly barometrical observations, made at Leith, from 7 oclock in the morning to seven in the evening on Thursday, July the 5th—I should be very much obliged.— Brewster formerly published them: if they are now published, a reference to where is all I want.—

There is one other point, by chance, now that you are in Scotland, you might find out for me, that is the height above the sea of Loch Tay, and Loch Dochart and Tyndrum—and Loch Tula or any one of these places.— I have no idea whom to ask, or where to look.— If you should chance to meet any engineer, will you ask him.—

I pity you the infliction of this most unmerciful letter.— Pray remember me most kindly to Mrs Lyell & to Miss Lyell, when you arrive at Kinnordy, I saw her name in the Landlord's book of Inverorum.— Tell Mrs Lyell to read, the second series of Mr Slick of Slickville sayings,—they are “dreadful odd & amazing comical” as Mr Slick himself would say.— He almost beats Samivel, that prince of heroes.— Good night, my dear Lyell—. you will think I have been drinking some strong drink to write so much nonsense,—but I did not even taste Minerva's small beer to day.—

Yours most sincerely | Chas. Darwin—

P.S. I have seen FitzRoy, who had bought your book. He looked rather black at the preface, made a kind of growl, but then came smooth again. I never cease wondering at his character, so full of good & generous traits but spoiled by such an unlucky temper.— Some part of the organization of his brain wants mending: nothing else will account for his manner of viewing things.