To W. H. Smyth 7 August [1839]
12 Upper Gower St
Dear Sir
I hope you will excuse the liberty I take in addressing you, after having only once had the pleasure of meeting you.
I am engaged in drawing up an account of the Coral formations of the Pacific & Indian seas, and I observe it is said in Krusentern’s memoir, that you were in the Cornwallis, when Smyth’s Isld in the Northern Pacific was discovered.—1 I am particularly anxious to know, whether the low islets & reefs, of which the group is composed, form a ring surrounding a lagoon, like so many other islds. in the Pacific, and the atolls in the Indian ocean:—or, if it has not a lagoon, then is one central island of greater height, & apparently of different constitution from the other low islets on the reef, & surrounded by a channel of deepish water:—in short whether it has any peculiar structure.—2 As I cannot obtain this information from any other quarter, if you would spare me a few minutes & send me an answer, I should feel extremely obliged and I trust you will excuse my having ventured so far to trouble you.—
Believe me dear Sir | Yours respectfully | Chas. Darwin 12 Upper Gower St
Aug 7th.—
Footnotes
Bibliography
Dawson, Llewellyn Styles. 1885. Memoirs of hydrography including brief biographies of the principal officers who have served in HM naval surveying service between the years 1750 and 1885. 2 pts. Eastbourne: Henry W. Keay. [Facsimile reprint, London: Cornmarket Press, 1969.]
Krusenstern, Adam Johann von. 1835. Supplémens au recueil de mémoires hydrographiques: publiés en 1826 et 1827, pour servir d’analyse et d’explication à l’Atlas de l’Océan Pacifique. St Petersburg: De l’Impr. de A. Pluchart.
Summary
Asks for details of Smyth’s Island discovered by WHS – particularly whether the islets form a ring surrounding a lagoon. [See Coral reefs, p. 158].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-530
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- William Henry Smyth
- Sent from
- London, Upper Gower St, 12
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 530,” accessed on 18 June 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-530.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 2