From W. B. Clarke 21 January 1862
St Leonard's
21 Jany 1862
My dear Sir,
I have opened this to enclose a P.S.1
You will find in the pamphlet which accompanies this, mention of probably Pollicipes among the fossils from Wollumbilla. p 52.2
Believing that it will be interesting to you to examine it, I enclose one Valve for your inspection, which I hope will reach you safely.
In your Monograph you define the oldest Cirripede to belong to the Oolite.3 But I notice in the November number of the Quarterly Journal G.S. (XVI Part 14. p 512) Mr Moore mentions one older still.4
It may, therefore, serve more than one object, if you will kindly examine & compare the specimen I enclose, and favour me with a description and sketch of it. I ask this, because the Wollumbilla fossils have not yet been more than cursorily examined. In Moore’s list (p 513--4) there are Molluscs, Cirripedes, Echinoderms and Annelids 13 genera of which I have in my first gathering. Is it possible, that the Wollumbilla collection is “Rhætic”?5 You see how many Liassic and Triassic forms there are,—with Myacites, Myophoria, Orthoceras & Belemnites Monotis &c. M'Coy is very indistinct in his statement as to their place.6 My views are given where I call them Triassic—i.e. upper Triassic. Can the Pollicipes help us?—
Pray let me ask you to give me such an account of it as I can use, in drawing up a further account of the fossils.
And now while writing of them—may I ask whether you know Mr. Moore and if he would undertake the description of the whole collection;—7 or if you can recommend me to any one who is able and would (on terms suitable to both parties) examine and describe all my fossils for a work I am likely to be engaged in, on the General geology of Australasia.8
I hope you will pardon all this & believe me | My dear Sir, | Yrs. very truly | W. B. Clarke
Mr Martens asked for your address. I think he will write to you.9
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Dictionary of geological terms: Dictionary of geological terms. Revised edition. New York: Anchor Books/Doubleday. 1976.
Fossil Cirripedia (1851): A monograph on the fossil Lepadidæ, or, pedunculated cirripedes of Great Britain. By Charles Darwin. London: Palaeontographical Society. 1851.
Jervis, James. [1945.] W. B. Clarke: ""The father of Australian geology"". Sydney: Royal Australian Historical Society. [Vols. 9,10]
McCoy, Frederick. 1861. Remarks on a series of fossils collected at Wollumbilla, and transmitted by Rev. W. D. Clarke, of Sydney. [Read 30 December 1861.] Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 6 (1865): 42–6.
Moore, Charles. 1861. On the zones of the Lower Lias and the Avicula contorta zone. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 17: 483–516.
Summary
Seeks to define oldest fossil cirripede.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3401
- From
- William Branwhite Clarke
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Sydney
- Source of text
- DAR 161.2: 173
- Physical description
- ALS 6pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3401,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3401.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 10