LETTER 528. TO C. LYELL. Down, October 14th {1861}.
I return Jamieson's capital letter. I have no comments, except to say that he has removed all my difficulties, and that now and for evermore I give up and abominate Glen Roy and all its belongings. It certainly is a splendid case, and wonderful monument of the old Ice-period. You ought to give a woodcut. How many have blundered over those horrid shelves!
That was a capital paper by Jamieson in the last "Geol. Journal." (528/1. "On the Drift and Rolled Gravel of the North of Scotland," "Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc." Volume XVI., page 347, 1860.) I was never before fully convinced of the land glacialisation of Scotland before, though Chambers tried hard to convince me.
I must say I differ rather about Ramsay's paper; perhaps he pushes it too far. (528/2. "On the Glacial Origin of Certain Lakes, etc." "Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc." Volume XVIII., page 185. See Letter 503.) It struck me the more from remembering some years ago marvelling what could be the meaning of such a multitude of lakes in Friesland and other northern districts. Ramsay wrote to me, and I suggested that he ought to compare mountainous tropical regions with northern regions. I could not remember many lakes in any mountainous tropical country. When Tyndall talks of every valley in Switzerland being formed by glaciers, he seems to forget there are valleys in the tropics; and it is monstrous, in my opinion, the accounting for the Glacial period in the Alps by greater height of mountains, and their lessened height, if I understand, by glacial erosion. "Ne sutor ultra crepidam," I think, applies in this case to him. I am hard at work on "Variation under Domestication." (528/3. Published 1868.)
P.S.—I am rather overwhelmed with letters at present, and it has just occurred to me that perhaps you will forward my note to Mr. Jamieson; as it will show that I entirely yield. I do believe every word in my Glen Roy paper is false.
LETTER 529. TO C. LYELL. Down, October 20th {1861}.
Notwithstanding the orchids, I have been very glad to see Jamieson's letter; no doubt, as he says, certainty will soon be reached.
With respect to the minor points of Glen Roy, I cannot feel easy with a mere barrier of ice; there is so much sloping, stratified detritus in the valleys. I remember that you somewhere have stated that a running stream soon cuts deeply into a glacier. I have been hunting up all old references and pamphlets, etc., on shelves in Scotland, and will send them off to Mr. J., as they possibly may be of use to him if he continues the subject. The Eildon Hills ought to be specially examined. Amongst MS. I came across a very old letter from me to you, in which I say: "If a glacialist admitted that the sea, before the formation of the shelves, covered the country (which would account for the land-straits above the level of the shelves), and if he admitted that the land gradually emerged, and if he supposed that his lakes were banked up by ice alone, he would make out, in my opinion, the best case against the marine origin of the shelves." (529/1. See Letter 522.) This seems very much what you and Mr. J. have come to.
The whole glacial theory is really a magnificent subject.
LETTER 530. TO C. LYELL. Down, April 1st {1862}.