392 MISCELLANEA. [1876, 



ciers existed. The upshot of this long letter is to ask you to 

 keep my notion in your head, and look out for upright peb- 

 bles in any lowland country which you may examine, where 

 glaciers have not existed. Or if you think the notion de- 

 serves any further thought, but not otherwise, to tell any one 

 of it, for instance Mr. Skertchly, who is examining such dis- 

 tricts. Pray forgive me for writing so long a letter, and 

 again thanking you for the great pleasure derived from your 

 book, 



I remain yours very faithfully, 



CH. DARWIN. 



P. S. ... I am glad that you have read Blytt ; * his paper 

 seemed to me a most important contribution to Botanical 

 Geography. How curious that the same conclusions should 

 have been arrived at by Mr. Skertchly, who seems to be a 

 first-rate observer ; and this implies, as I always think, a 

 sound theoriser. 



I have told my publisher to send you in two or three days 

 a copy (second edition) of my geological work during the 

 voyage of the Beagle. The sole point which would perhaps 

 interest you is about the steppe-like plains of Patagonia. 



For many years past I have had fearful misgivings that it 

 must have been the level of the sea, and not that of the land 

 which has changed. 



I read a few months ago your [brother's] very interesting 

 life of Murchison.f Though I have always thought that he 

 ranked next to W. Smith in the classification of formations, 

 and though I knew how kind-hearted [he was], yet the book 

 has raised him greatly in my respect, notwithstanding his 

 foibles and want of broad philosophical views. 



[The only other geological work of his later years was 

 embodied in his book on earthworms (1881), which may 



* Axel Blytt. ' Essay on the Immigration of the Norwegian Flora 

 during alternate rainy and dry Seasons.' Christiania, 1876. 

 f By Mr. Archibald Geikie. 



