To A. C. Ramsay 1 July [1859]1
Down Bromley Kent
July 1st
Dear Ramsay
I am very much obliged for your interesting note, answering all my queries so clearly. I am sorry about Siberia.—2 I shd like to put in some such sentence as following, & if I do not hear to contrary, I will do so.—
“Traces of life have been observed in the Longmynd beds, beneath Barrande’s primordial zone, & fossils have quite recently been discovered, as I hear from Prof. Ramsay, in the Laurentian marble of Canada, which is the oldest known formation in N. America, & believed to be lower than the Longmynd seriess.”—3
If I do not hear, I will assume that you do not object & think the case sufficiently clear to be put in in this general way.—
Believe me | Dear Ramsay | Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin
Do not forget that with your knowledge of Glacial action two days at Glen Roy would for ever settle the question which has nearly driven so many of us mad.— If at any future year you were persuaded to go there, I shd like to draw your attention to one or two little points.— I shd so like to see the case settled, even if it proved me ever so egrigiously wrong.—4
Footnotes
Bibliography
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Summary
Thanks for answer to queries.
Expresses intention of reporting observations of traces of life in the Long Mynd beds and asks permission to cite ACR on his recent discovery of fossils in the Laurentian marbles of Canada.
Urges ACR’s investigation of Glen Roy problems.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2851
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Andrew Crombie Ramsay
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2851,” accessed on 1 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2851.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 7