To C. G. Semper 2 October 1879
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
Oct 2nd 1879
My dear Prof Semper,
I thank you for your extremely kind letter of the 19th, & for the proof sheets. I believe that I understand all, excepting one or two sentences where my imperfect knowledge of German has interfered.1 This is my sole & poor excuse for the mistake which I made in the second edit of my Coral book.2 Your account of the Pellew Islands is a fine addition to our knowledge on Coral reefs. I have very little to say on the subject: even if I had formerly read your account & seen your maps, but had known nothing of the proofs of recent elevation & of your belief that the Islands have not since subsided, I have no doubt that I should have considered them as formed during subsidence. But I should have been much troubled in my mind by the sea not being so deep as it usually is round atolls, and by the reef on one side sloping so gradually beneath the sea; for this latter fact, as far as my memory serves me, is a very unusual & almost unparalleled case. I always foresaw that a bank at the proper depth beneath the surface would give rise to a reef which could not be distinguished from an atoll formed during subsidence.3 I must still adhere to my opinion that the atolls & barrier-reefs in the middle of the Pacific & Indian oceans indicates subsidence;4 but I fully agree with you that such cases as that of the Pellew Islands if of at all frequent occurrence, would make my general conclusions of very little value. Future observers must decide between us. It will be a strange fact if there has not been subsidence of the beds, of the great oceans and if this has not affected the forms of the Coral reefs.5
In the 3 last pages of the last sheet sent, I am extremely glad to see that you are going to treat of the dispersion of animals.6 Your preliminary remarks seem to me quite excellent. There is nothing about M. Wagner as I expected to find.7 I suppose that you have seen Moseley last book, which contains some good observations on dispersion.8
I am glad that your ‘Biology’ will appear in English, for then I can read it with ease.9
Pray believe me | Yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Moseley, Henry Nottidge. 1879. Notes by a naturalist on the ‘Challenger’, being an account of various observations made during the voyage of H.M.S. ‘Challenger’ round the world, in the years 1872–1876. London: Macmillan and Co.
Semper, Carl. 1863. Reisebericht. Briefliche Mittheilung an A. Kölliker. Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Zoologie 13: 558–69.
Semper, Karl. 1880. Die natürlichen Existenzbedingungen der Thiere. 2 vols. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus.
Semper, Karl. 1881. The natural conditions of existence as they affect animal life. London: C. Kegan Paul & Co.
Summary
Discusses CGS’s account of Pellew Islands. Still believes atolls and barrier reefs in Pacific indicate subsidence. But cases like Pellew Islands, if frequent, would make his conclusions of little value.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-12245
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Carl Gottfried Semper
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Düsseldorf (slg 60/Dok/61)
- Physical description
- LS(A) 6pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12245,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12245.xml