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.

    148/184 (page 134)
    134 SANDRA HERBERT Annales des sciences naturelles, vol. 10 (1827), p. 232-233. Presumably Darwin's 'additional information' on the genus appeared in his later article, 'Observations on the Structure and Propagation of the genus Sagitta\ Annals and Magazine of Natural History, vol. 8 (1844), pp. 1-6 with plate. Humboldt, Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, vol. 3, p. 189. Quoted exactly except for minor variations in punctuation, the abbreviation of ' and ' to ' & ' and the lack of emphasis on foreign words by way of underlining. Humboldt, Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, vol. 3, p. 205: The veta grande, or principal vein [at Zacatecas], has the same direction as the veta madre of Guanaxuato ; the others are generally in a direction from east to west. And p. 207: This wealth is displayed. . .not in the ravins, and where the veins run along the gentle slope of the mountains, but most frequently on the most elevated summits, on points where the surface appears to have been tumultuously torn, in the antient revolutions of the globe. Humboldt, Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, vol. 3, p. 210: The greatest number of these veins [at Catorce] are western {spathgänge)', and their inclination is from 25° to 30° towards the north east. P. 223: . . .the vein of Moran . . .inclined 84° to the north east. . . P. 226: The oldest rock which appears at the surface in this district of mines [at Tasco], is the primitive slate... .Its direction is hor. 3-4; and its inclination 40° to the north-west.... Also p. 227: The district of mines of Tasco.. .contains a great number of veins.. .all directed from the north¬ west to the south-east, hor. 7-9. Humboldt, Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, vol. 3, p. 215: What relation exists between these last beds [of porphyry], which several distin¬ guished mineralogists consider as volcanic productions, and the porphyries of Pachuca, Real del Monte, and Moran, in which nature has deposited enormous masses of sulfuretted silver and argentiferous pyrites? This problem which is one of the most difficult in geology, will only be resolved when a great number of zealous and intelli¬ gent travellers, shall have gone over the Mexican Cordilleras, and carefully studied the immense variety of porphyries which are destitute of quartz, and which abound both in hornblend and vitreous felspar. Humboldt, Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, vol. 3, p. 227: These veins [in the mining districts of Tasco and the Real de Tehuilotepec], like those of Catorce, traverse both the limestone and the micaceous slate which serves for its base; and they exhibit the same metals in both rocks. Humboldt, Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, vol. 3, p. 230: This formation [of veins, one of four types existing at Tasco and Tehuilotepec] which is the richest of all, displays the remarkable phenomenon, that the minerals the most abun¬ dant in silver, form spheroidal balls, from ten to twelve centimetres in diameter...