Summary

Thanks for note on his Macrauchenia paper [Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 3d ser. 7 (1861): 441–3].

Asks for references to descriptions of certain bones found in South America.

Lists four fossil New World monkeys; is CD aware of any others?

Summary

Roughly identifies some insects sent by CD; is waiting to see Francis Walker, who, he believes, has written a monograph on the family to which they belong.

Summary

Will forward TFJ’s letter to Charles Lyell.

Gives up the marine theory [of the parallel roads of Glen Roy] for ‘ever & ever’, but ‘with a groan’.

Summary

On ACR’s paper on glacial origin of lakes. CD thinks it is correct. Suggests further investigation to corroborate it. His only doubt has to do with areas of great activity.

On ACR’s view of cause of glacial period: CD did battle with Hooker on same point.

T. F. Jamieson has smashed CD’s Glen Roy marine theory in splendid style.

Summary

Writes with an important fact about the parallel roads of Glen Roy. The watershed at Makoul corresponds with the lowermost of the Glen Roy lines. Over a stretch of 20 miles from east to west the lowermost of the Glen Roy lines is near parallel with the present sea level.

Summary

Sends 3d ed. of catalogue of rocks [A descriptive catalogue of the rock specimens in the Museum of Practical Geology (1862)].

T. F. Jamieson’s paper on the parallel roads of Glen Roy to be read 20 January. Asks whether CD will be a referee.

Summary

Suggests that the height of the water which formed the shelves in Glen Roy was determined not by the height of the blocking glacier but by the height of a col. Notes problems in the idea.

Summary

In reply to CD’s letter, "Peas" in Gardeners’ Chronicle [8 Nov 1862; Collected papers 2: 70] sends information on the duration of some of A. Knight’s crossed varieties.

Summary

Household problems: wife’s health, visitors to Kew.

Will go to sale of J. C. Ross’s effects looking for glacial and Kerguelen Land works not at British Museum.

Summary

Jamieson has revisited Glen Roy and confirmed his theory of glacier lakes.

A. G. More considers CD the most profound of reasoners.

Summary

Sends condolences on death of LH’s wife. Recalls many pleasant hours in Bedford Place. He and Emma thank LH for sending the memorial paper.

Summary

Explains how melting of ice in Glen Spean could have successively freed two lower cols, thus establishing the water-levels that determined the two lower shelves in Glen Roy.

Plans to read a paper to the Linnean Society ["Sexual forms of Catasetum", Collected papers 2: 63–70].

Summary

Further comments on Jamieson’s theory of the formation of the roads of Glen Roy; paper by Jamieson dealing with glaciation in Scotland ["On the ice-worn rocks of Scotland", Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 18 (1862): 164–84].

Comments on paper by A. C. Ramsay on the glacial formation of lakes ["On the glacial origin of certain lakes", Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 18 (1862): 185–204].

Criticises remarks by John Tyndall on glacial formation of Swiss valleys.

Summary

J. C. Wickham, B. J. Sulivan, and Arthur Mellersh visited a fortnight ago.

Oldest son [William] now a banker.

Sends photograph.

Health too bad to see anyone at present. Rarely sees FitzRoy.

Summary

Sends CD ch. 2 of his book [The naturalist on the river Amazons] for suggestions, having accepted CD’s recommendations concerning ch. 1.

Effects of climate on dress in ch. 1 similar to, but independent of, notions expressed by CD in his Journal of researches [p. 381].

On geology, book deals with distribution and theory of deltas of the Amazon.

Summary

Discusses primrose ovules,

Atlantis paper [Nat. Hist. Rev. (1862): 149–70],

plant migrations;

Corydalis.

Summary

Requests Linum, for dimorphism study.

Reviewer of Orchids [Nat. Hist. Rev. n.s. 2 (1862): 371–6]is correct about the organisation of the book; he wonders who the reviewer is.

Summary

Encloses a passage from his book, The botany of the voyage of H.M.S. "Herald" [1852–7].

Discusses possibility of publishing work on flora of Hawaiian Islands.

Summary

Thanks for Haast’s observations. Particularly glad to get geological evidence of glacial action (in Southern Hemisphere).

Thinks Ramsay’s theory to large extent true, but thinks that in a much disturbed country some lakes would have been formed in depressions.

Summary

JDH admits he wrote Gardeners’ Chronicle and Natural History Review articles on orchids [Gard. Chron. (1862): 789–90, 863, 910; Nat. Hist. Rev. n.s. 2 (1862): 371–6].

JDH’s objections to CD’s idea of how Greenland was repopulated. Temperate Greenland has as Arctic a flora as Arctic Greenland – a fact of astounding force. Why should certain Scandinavian species be absent? Migration by sea-currents can no more account for the present distribution in Greenland than can special creation.