154 GEOLOGY [Chap. IX 



Letter 502 it from Ramsay or the Geological Society. If you chance to 

 meet Ramsay will you ask him whether he has it ? I think it 

 would perhaps be worth while just to call the N. American 

 geologists' attention to the idea ; but it is not worth 

 any trouble. I am tremendously busy with all sorts of 

 experiments. By the way, Hopkins at the Geological Society 

 seemed to admit some truth in the idea of scoring by (viscid) 

 icebergs. If the Geological Society takes so much [time] to 

 judge of truth of notions, as you were telling me in regard 

 to Ramsay's Permian glaciers, 1 it will be as injurious to 

 progress as the French Institut. 



Letter 503 To J. D. Hooker. 



Cliff Cottage, Bournemouth, [Sept.] 21st [1862]. 

 I am especially obliged to you for sending me Haast's 2 

 communications. They are very interesting and grand about 

 glacial and drift or marine glacial. I see he alludes to the 

 whole southern hemisphere. I wonder whether he has read 

 the Origin. Considering your facts on the Alpine plants of 

 N. Zealand and remarks, I am particularly glad to hear of the 

 geological evidence of glacial action. I presume he is sure 

 to collect and send over the mountain rat of which he speaks. 

 I long to know what it is. A frog and rat together would, to 

 my mind, prove former connection of New Zealand to some 

 continent ; for I can hardly suppose that the Polynesians 

 introduced the rat as game, though so esteemed in the 

 Friendly Islands. Ramsay sent me his paper 3 and asked my 

 opinion on it. I agree with you and think highly of it. I 

 cannot doubt that it is to a large extent true ; my only doubt 

 is, that in a much disturbed country, I should have thought 

 that some depressions, and consequently lakes, would almost 



1 " On the Occurrence of angular, sub-angular, polished, and striated 

 Fragments and Boulders in the Permian Breccia of Shropshire, Worcester- 

 shire, etc.; and on the Probable Existence of Glaciers and Icebergs in the 

 Permian Epoch." By A. C. Ramsay, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, Vol. XL, 

 p. 185, 1855. 



2 Sir Julius von Haast (1824-87), published several papers on the 

 Geology of New Zealand, with special reference to glacial phenomena. 

 (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, Vol. XXL, pp. 130, 133, 1865 ; Vol. XXIII. , 

 p. 342, 1867.) 



3 " On the Glacial Origin of certain Lakes in Switzerland, etc.," Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc, Vol. XVIII., p. 185, 1862. 



