The red notebook of Charles Darwin / edited, with an introduction and notes by Sandra Herbert.

  • Charles Darwin
Date:
1980
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Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Credit: The red notebook of Charles Darwin / edited, with an introduction and notes by Sandra Herbert. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    107/184 (page 93)
    NOTES 93 distinct ranges of ancient sea cliffs, one above the other, at various elevations in the Morea, which attest as many successive elevations of the country. In this passage Darwin would seem to be addressing Lyell's argument (Principles of Geology, vol. 3, p. 114) that . . .a country that has been raised at a very remote period to a considerable height above the level of the sea, may present nearly the same external configuration as one that has been more recently uplifted to the same height. Lyell, Principles of Geology, vol. 3, p. 116: .. .we have seen [for the newer Pliocene] that a stratified mass of solid limestone, attaining sometimes a thickness of eight hundred feet and upwards, has been gradually deposited at the bottom of the sea, the imbedded fossil shells and corallines being almost all of recent species. Yet these fossils are frequently in the state of mere casts, so that in appearance they correspond very closely to organic remains found in limestones of very ancient date. René Primevère Lesson and Prosper Garnot, Voyage autour du monde. . .1822- 1825. Zoologie (Paris, 1826), vol. 1, part 1, p. 14: . . . mais il est à remarquer que cette île vaste et composée de deux terres séparées par un détroit, quoique rapprochée de la Nouvelle-Hollande et par la même latitude, en diffère si complètement, qu'elles ne se ressemblent nullement dans leurs productions végétales. Toutefois la Nouvelle- Zélande, si riche en genres particuliers à son sol et peu connus, en a cependant d'indiens, tels que des piper, des olea, et une fougère réniforme qui existe, à ce qu'on assure, à l'île Maurice. Also p. 22: Il est à remarquer qu'on ne connaît aucun quadrupède comme véritablement indigène de la Nouvelle-Zélande, excepté le rat, si abondamment répandu sur les îles de l'Océanie, comme sur presque l'univers entier. Molina, Compendio de la historia geografica. . .del reyno de Chile, vol. 1, p. 30: La erupción mas famosa de que tenemos noticia, fue la del volcan del monte de Peteroa, que el dia tres de Diciembre del ano 1762 se abrió una nueva boca ó cratéra, hendiendo en dos partes un monte contiguo por espacio de muchas millas. El estrepito fue tan horrible, que se sintió en una gran parte del Reyno, pero no causó vibración alguna sensible. Las cenizas y las lavas rellenaron todos los valles inmediatos, y aumentaron por dos dias las aguas del rio Tingiririca', y precipitándose un pedazo de monte sobre el gran rio Lontué, suspendió su corriente por espacio de diez dias, y estancadas las aguas, despues de haber formado una dilatada laguna que existe en el dia, se abrieron por ultimo con violencia un nuevo camino, é inundaron todos aquellos campos. Darwin noted this passage in his own copy of the work with the remark, P 30 — Piteron Earthquake caused lake & deluge — state of valleys. This entry is in light brown ink. Lyell, Principles of Geology, vol. 3, p. 124: Towards the centre [of the dikes at Somma, the ancient cone of Vesuvius]. . .the rock is coarser grained, the component elements being in a far more crystalline state, while at the edge the lava is sometimes