1 8/6.] GEOLOGY. 213 



views suggested in his letter as to the origin of the angular 

 gravels, &c., in the South of England will, I believe, come 

 to be accepted as the truth. This question has a much 

 wider bearing than might at first appear. In point of fact 

 it solves one of the most difficult problems in Quaternary 

 Geology and has already attracted the attention of German 

 geologists."] 



C. Darwin to James Geikie. 



Down, November 16, 1876. 



MY DEAR SlR, I hope that you will forgive me for 

 troubling you with a very long letter. But first allow me to 

 tell you with what extreme pleasure and admiration I have 

 just finished reading your ' Great Ice Age.' It seems to me 

 admirably done, and most clear. Interesting as many 

 chapters are in the history of the world, I do not think that 

 any one comes [up] nearly to the glacial period or periods. 

 Though I have steadily read much on the subject, your book 

 makes the whole appear almost new to me. 



I am now going to mention a small observation, made by 

 me two or three years ago, near Southampton, but not fol- 

 lowed out, as I have no strength for excursions. I need say 

 nothing about the character of the drift there (which includes 

 palaeolithic celts), for you have described its essential features 

 in a few words at p. 506. It covers the whole country [in an] 

 even plain-like surface, almost irrespective of the present 

 outline of the land. 



The coarse stratification has sometimes been disturbed. I 

 find that you allude " to the larger stones often standing on 

 end ;" and this is the point which struck me so much. Not 

 only moderately sized angular stones, but small oval pebbles 

 often stand vertically up, in a manner which I have never seen 

 in ordinary gravel beds. This fact reminded me of what 

 occurs near my home, in the stiff red clay, full of unworn flints 

 over the chalk, which is no doubt the residue left undissolved 



