1868 1877] 211 



VI. AGE OF THE WORLD, 1868-77. Letter 544 



To J. Croll. 



Down, Sept. igth, 1868. 



I hope that you will allow me to thank you for sending 

 me your papers in the Phil. Magazine^ I have never, I 

 think, in my life been so deeply interested by any geological 

 discussion. I now first begin to see what a million means, 

 and I feel quite ashamed of myself at the silly way in which 

 I have spoken of millions of years. I was formerly a great 

 believer in the power of the sea in denudation, and this was 

 perhaps natural, as most of my geological work was done 

 near sea-coasts and on islands. But it is a consolation to 

 me to reflect that as soon as I read Mr. Whittaker's paper 2 

 on the escarpments of England, and Ramsay 3 and Jukes' 4 

 papers, I gave up in my own mind the case ; but I never 

 fully realised the truth until reading your papers just 

 received. How often I have speculated in vain on the origin 

 of the valleys in the chalk platform round this place, but now 

 all is clear. I thank you cordially for having cleared so 

 much mist from before my eyes. 



To T. Mellard Reade. Letter 545 



Down, Feb. gth, 1877. 



I am much obliged for your kind note, and the present 

 of your essay. I have read it with great interest, and the 

 results are certainly most surprising. 5 It appears to me 



1 Croll published several papers in the Philosophical Magazine between 

 1864 and the date of this letter (1868). 



2 " On Subaerial Denudation," and " On Cliffs and Escarpments of 

 the Chalk and Lower Tertiary Beds," Geol. Mag., Vol. IV., p. 447, 1867. 



3 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol. XVIII., p. 185, 1862. "On the 

 Glacial Origin of certain Lakes in Switzerland, the Black Forest, Great 

 Britain, Sweden, North America, and elsewhere." 



4 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol. XVI 1 1., p. -378, 1862. " On the Mode 

 of Formation of some River- Valleys in the South of Ireland." 



5 Presidential Address delivered by T. Mellard Reade before the 

 Liverpool Geological Society (Proc. Liverpool Geol. Soc., Vol. III., 

 pt. iii., p. 211, 1877). See also "Examination of a Calculation of the Age 

 of the Earth, based upon the hypothesis of the Permanence of Oceans 

 and Continents." Geol. Mag., Vol. X., p. 309, 1883. 



