1848.] ROBERT CHAMBERS. 33 1 



I commence the description of them with saying, that ' per- 

 ceiving their importance, I examined them with scrupulous 

 care,' and expatiate at considerable length on them. I have 

 indirectly told him I do not think he has quite claims to 

 consider that he alone (which he pretty directly asserts) has 

 solved the problem of Glen Roy. With respect to the ter- 

 races at lower levels coincident in height all round Scotland 

 and England, I am inclined to believe he shows some little 

 probability of there being some leading ones coincident, but 

 much more exact evidence is required. Would you believe 

 it credible ? he advances as a probable solution to account 

 for the rise of Great Britain that in some great ocean one- 

 twentieth of the bottom of the whole aqueous surface of the 

 globe has sunk in (he does not say where he puts it) for a 

 thickness of half a mile, and this he has calculated would 

 make an apparent rise of 130 feet." 



C. Darwin to C. Lyell. 



Down [June, 1848]. 



My dear Lyell, — Out of justice to Chambers I must 

 trouble you with one line to say, as far as I am personally 

 concerned in Glen Roy, he has made the amende honorable, 

 and pleads guilty through inadvertency of taking my two 

 lines of arguments and facts without acknowledgment. He 

 concluded by saying he " came to the same point by an in- 

 dependent course of inquiry, which in a small degree excuses 

 this inadvertency." His letter altogether shows a very good 

 disposition, and says he is li much gratified with the measured 

 approbation which you bestow, &c." I am heartily glad I 

 was able to say in truth that I thought he had done good 

 service in calling more attention to the subject of the ter- 

 races. He protests it is unfair to call the sinking of the sea 

 his theory, for that he with care always speaks of mere change 

 of level, and this is quite true ; but the one section in which 

 he shows how he conceives the sea might sink is so aston- 

 ishing, that I believe it will with others, as with me, more than 



