LETTERS OF CHARLES DARWIN. 407 



oceanic organisms. I rejected this view, as from the few dredgings 

 made in the Beagle in the S. Temperate regions, I concluded that 

 shells, the smaller corals, etc., etc., decayed and were dissolved when 

 not protected by the deposition of sediment; and sediment could not 

 accumulate in the open ocean. Certainly shells, etc., were in several 

 cases completely rotten, and crumbled into mud between my fingers; 

 but you will know well whether this is in any degree common. I have 

 expressly said that a bank at the proper depth would give rise to an 

 atoll, which could not be distinguished from one formed during sub- 

 sidence. I can, however, hardly believe, in the former presence of as 

 many banks (there having been no subsidence) as there are atolls in 

 the great oceans, within a reasonable depth, on which minute oceanic 

 organisms could have accumulated to the thickness of many hundred 

 feet. I think that it has been shown that the oscillations from great 

 waves extend down to a considerable depth, and if so the oscillating 

 water would tend to lift up (according to an old doctrine propounded 

 by Play fair) minute particles lying at the bottom, and allow them to 

 be slowly drifted away from the submarine bank by the slightest cur- 

 rent. Lastly, I can not understand Mr. Murray, who admits that 

 small calcareous organisms are dissolved by the carbonic acid in the 

 water at great depths, and that coral reefs, etc., etc., are likewise dis- 

 solved near the surface, but that this does not occur at intermediate 

 depths, where he believes that the minute oceanic calcareous organisms 

 accumulate until the bank reaches within the reef-building depth. 

 But I suppose that I must have misunderstood him. 



Pray forgive me for troubling you at such length, but it has oc- 

 curred to me that you might be disposed to give, after your wide 

 experience, your judgment. If I am wrong, the sooner I am knocked 

 on the head and annihilated so much the better. It still seems to me 

 a marvelous thing that there should not have been much and long- 

 continued subsidence in the beds of the great oceans. I wish that 

 some doubly rich millionaire would take it into his head to have bor- 

 ings made in some of the Pacific and Indian atolls, and bring home 

 cores for slicing from a depth of 500 or 600 feet. 



To Mrs. Emily Talbot, Boston. 



Down, July 19th, [1881?]. 

 In response to your wish, I have much pleasure in expressing the 

 interest which I feel in your proposed investigation on the mental 

 and bodily development of infants. Very little is at present accurately 

 known on this subject, and I believe that isolated observations will 

 add but little to our knowledge, whereas tabulated results from a very 

 large number of observations, systematically made, would probably 



