To Charles Lyell 23 [October 1861]
Down
23d.
My dear Lyell
I ought to have returned your note by this morning’s post, but I was too busy dissecting.—1 I suppose everyone takes your view that the water flowed out at head of valley when the lake existed.2 The “intermediate shelf” in Glen Roy, seemed to me on careful examination as plain as any shelf whatever; but I think I remember Mr. J. did not think so; it has been noticed by everyone who has visited the valley.3 There is no outlet known corresponding with this shelf; but as Mr Milne says there may be;4 & the whole valley ought to be searched for lateral outlets between the two upper shelves.— A man might spend his life there. I hope Mr. J. will go there again; for it is an opprobrium to British Geologists, that it shd. not be settled beyond dispute.5
My difficulty is the sloping mass of matter, stratified & thick, at bottom of valley below lowest horizontal shelf: I think the river must have delivered detritus at infinitely many levels, by opening on a lake or arm of sea.— If there was terminal moraine at mouth of Spean to be slowly cut through all would be explained: I can hardly think ice would suffice. But if it were the sea, I cannot help a sneaking hope that the sea might have formed the horizontal shelves.—
Ever yours | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Collected papers: The collected papers of Charles Darwin. Edited by Paul H. Barrett. 2 vols. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 1977.
Jamieson, Thomas Francis. 1863. On the parallel roads of Glen Roy, and their place in the history of the glacial period. [Read 21 January 1863.] Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 19: 235–59.
Lauder, Thomas Dick. 1823. On the parallel roads of Lochaber. [Read 2 March 1818.] Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 9: 1–64.
Lyell, Charles. 1841. Elements of geology. 2d ed. 2 vols. London. [Vols. 2,9]
Summary
Comments especially on the "intermediate shelf" problem of Glen Roy; views of Jamieson and Milne. CD "cannot help a sneaking hope that the sea might have formed the horizontal shelves".
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3295
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.269)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3295,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3295.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 9