Charles Lyell and Modern Geology

the workmen being encouraged to look out for the remains of plants and the scales of fishes. Murchison, however, was again travelling o

ion of the results of their work, since these cannot fail to keep Murchison so

lder, as the sub-Apennines are several shades older than the Sicilian tertiaries. They have discovered an immensely thick conglomerate, 500 feet of compact marble-like limestone, a great thickness of oolite, not distinguishable from Bath oolite, an upper red sand and conglomerate, etc. etc., all members of that group zoologically sub-Apennine. This is glorious

weeks later, at the end of October, and after his return

Much of Buckland's dashing paper on Alps wrong. A formation (marine) found at foot of Alps, between Danube and Rhine, thicker than all the English secondaries united. Munich is in it. Its age probably between chalk and our oldest tertiaries. I have this moment received a note from C. Prévost by Murchison. He has heard with delight and surprise of their Alpine novelties, and, alluding to them and other discoveries, he says: 'Com

o Causes now in Operation.' The first volume will be quite finished by the end of the month. The second is, in a manner, written, but will require great recasting. I start for Iceland by the end of April, so time is precious." The process of incubation was continued throughout the winter. On February 3rd, 1830, he had corrected the press as far as the eightieth page, getting on slowly, but with satisfaction to himself. "How much more difficult it is," he remarks, "to write for general readers than for the scientific world; yet half our savants think that to write popularly would be a condescension to which they mi

Great Steppe, and a return up the Danube to Vienna; but by the middle of June the first volume of the "Principles" was nearly finished; and in a letter to Scrope,[34] to whom advance sheet

avy said in his last book, 'It is always more probable that the new stars become visible, and then invisible, and pre-existed, than that they are created and extinguished.' So I think. All I ask is, that at any given period of the past, don't stop inquiry when puzzled by refuge to a beginning, which is all one with 'another state of nature,' as it appears t

d sea, and that of the coincidence of time between zoological and geographical changes in the past, as the most novel parts of the book; stating also that he has been careful to refer to

wn without giving offence, it would be in an historical sketch, and you must abstract mine i

s-are always very prone to assume the meaning of certain fundamental terms to be exactly that which they desire, and then to proceed deductively to a conclusion as if their questionable postulates were axiomatic truths. They further assume, very commonly, that the possession of theological knowledge-scanty and superficial though it may be-enables them to dispense with any study of science, and to pronounce authoritatively on the value of evidence which they are incapable of weighing, and of conclusions which they are too ignorant to test. Being thus, in their own opinion, infallible, a freedom of expression is, for them, more than permissible, which, in most other matters, would be generally held to transgress the limits of courtesy and

n the succession of strata, a fact upon which the catastrophists much relied, he attached comparatively little value, insisting on their more or less local character. In the records of the rocks he finds no trace of a clean sweep of living creatures or of anything lik

gy-in short, an excellent companion, whose only fault was being "a little too fond of lagging a day for rest," even in places where nothing is to be done. Writing from Bordeaux to a sister, Lyell expresses a hope that at Bagnères de Luchon he may hear whether his book is out.[35] Two passages in his letter are not without a more general interest. One repeats a remark made to him by D'Aubuisson, whom he describes as "a great gun of the old Wernerian school, who ... thinks the interest of the subject greatly destroyed by our new innovat

rounds than the French at this moment, yet never in our country towns were Assizes conducted with more seriousness and quiet. There is no occasion to make the rabble drunk. All the voters of the little colleges are of the rank of

erfect order and calmness" were at an end; Charles X. abdicate

rt from the different character of the vegetation-the more luxuriant flora, the extensive forests of beech and oak at elevations where in Switzerland only the pines and larches would flourish-the valleys are narrower, the mountains more precipitous-the scenery, in short, is more like that around Interlaken or in the valley of

aptain Cooke, who feared the heat of the lower country, going eastwards through the curious little mountain republic of Andorre to Luchon; while Lyell, who seems to have been proof against the sun, recrossed the watershed into the valley of the Tet and descended it to Perpignan. Information obtained in this town encouraged him to go direct to Barcelona, where the Captain-General, the Conde D'Espagne, a distinguished soldier and diplomatist, gave him a courteous reception, and did everything in his power to smooth the way for a visit to Olot, a region of extinct volcanoes, which had been one of the

olume of the "Principles," which was afterwards incorporated into the "Elements of Geology." The following summary is quoted from a let

much smaller in general, and at certain points the lava is fairly cut through, and even in two or three cases the subjacent rock. Thus at Castel Follet, a great current near its termination is cut through, and eighty or ninety feet of columnar basalt laid open, resting on an old alluvium, not containing volcanic pebbles; and below that, nummulitic limestone is eroded to the depth of twenty-five feet, the river now being about thirty-five feet lower than when the lava flowed, though most of the old valley is still occupied by the lava current. There are about fourteen or perhaps t

er would set him speculating on the causes which could have fashioned that strange portal in the limestone crest of the mountain. They descended some distance on the Spanish side of the Brèche, in order to make a more complete investigation of the structure of the ch

his late journey and on other occasions. "I have," he says, "for a long time been making minute drawings of the lamination and stratification of beds, in formations of very different ages, first with a view to prove to demonstration that at every epoch the same identical causes were in operation. I was next led in Scotland to a suspicion, since confirmed, that all the minute regularities and irregularities of stratific

d, to be spent in tabulating the species of Tertiary shells in his own (Deshayes') and the other great collections of Paris. "I shall thus," Lyell says, "be giving the subject a decided push by rendering the greater wealth of the French collectors available in illustrating the greater experience of the English geologists in actual observation; for here they sit still and buy shells, and work indoors, as much as we travel." He also remarks to the same correspondent (a sister): "I am nearly sure now that my grand theory of temperature will carry the day.... I will treat our geologists with a theory for the newer deposits in next volume, which, although not half so original, will perhaps surprise them more."[41] He was expecting, as another letter shows, to prove the gradual approximation of the fauna preserved in the Tertiary deposits to that which still exists, and to settle, as he hopes "for ever, the question whether species come in

hambers in Raymond Buildings, Gray's Inn, which are "very light, healthy and good, on the same staircase as Broderip." Invitations to dinner are becoming frequent, but he wisely determines to go but little into society. "All my friends," he says, "who are in practice do this all the year and every year, and I do not see why I should not be privileged, now that I have the moral certainty of earning a small but honourable

clared that they "considered some of my doctrines startling enough, but could not find that they were come by otherwise than in a straight-forward manner, and (as I appeared to think) logically deducible from the facts; so that whether the facts were true or not, or my conclusions logical or otherwise, there was no reason to infer that I had made my theory from any hostile feeling towards revelation"[45]-a conclusion, marked by a wise caution, which representatives of the Church of England would have done well to bear in mind on more than one subsequent occasion-such as, for example, when the question of the antiquity of man or that of the origin of species was raised. But supporters of the Church of England may fairly maintain that in difficult crises, especially in those connected with discoveries in science or in history, the utterances of her bishops have been generally cautious and far-seein

is a massive, rather outlying hill, about five miles west of the peak of Snowdon, and at about the same distance from the nearest part of the sea-coast. Its bare summit rises gently to a scattered group of projecting crags, the highest of which is 1,401 feet above the sea. On the eastern side are extensive slate quarries, and in working these the shell beds are disclosed a short distance below the summit. They consist of well-stratified sands, with occasional gravelly beds, and contain a fair number of shells, both broken and whole, the fauna being slightly more arctic than that which still inhabits the neighbouring sea. The deposit is now recognised as more recent than the "crags" of East Anglia, for none of the species are extinct, and is assigned to some part of the so-called Glacial Epoch. It was before long regarded as an indication that, at no very remote date after North Wales had assumed or ve

ch eruption having been almost invariably at some new point," are now very commonly occupied by quiet pools of water, such as Lyell had already seen in the old volcanic districts of the Papal States. Among these craters, composed sometimes of loose and light scoria, from which no lava-stream ever flowed, he found fresh evidence-as at the Rotherberg-against the diluvian hypothesis. "It is," as he writes to his friend, Dr. Fleming, "one of the ten thousand proofs of the incubus that the Mosaic deluge has been, and is, I fear,

s ready to maintain against all comers. But a few months since there had been a depth of eighty fathoms, as was proved by sounding, on the site of this island. Now the cone "is 200 feet above water and is still growing.[49] Here is a hill 680 feet, with hope of more, and the prob

to combine business with a fair amount of both scientific work and social pleasure. This visit afforded him an opportunity of he

iversity students in a lecture on the philosophy of the human mind. But then the practical application was enforced by a strain of real eloquence, of a very energetic, natural, and striking description.... But, unfortunately, every here and there he seemed to feel that he was sinning against some of the Calvinistic doct

ws, disturbances arising from the struggle over the Reform Bill, visits of friends, geological researches, walks on the hills to search for plants or for insect

om information to counsel: "If you are not frightened by De la Beche, I think you are in a fair way to be a geologist; though it is in the field only that a person can really get to like the stiff part of it. Not that there is really anything in it that is not very eas

obscure. A little of this will improve your power, perhaps as an author. Then, as you are pursuing a path of original and purely independent discovery and observation, it increases much your public usefulness in a science so unavoidably controversial to

ave been halcyon d

ed elsewhere in it or in letters, that our forefathers, not wholly excluding men of science, some sixty y

lf-past twelve o'clock! They, in the meantime, had had tea, and a regular supper laid out in the drawing-room. After an hour with the ladies they ret

asant sort, but no samples of love-making. The nearest approach to it is in the following passage, which is

m or annoyed at such hostile demonstrations I shall always retreat to you. You will be my harbour of peace to retire to, and where I may forget the storm. I know that by persevering steadily I shall some years hence stand ver

ny more. He is also cheered by finding that his ideas are steadily gaining ground among geologists, converts becoming more confident, unbelievers more uneasy. He made good progress with his book, and real

ut, though in favour of the latter, he is not very enthusiastic on the subject, for on one occasion he expresses regret at having been absent, through forgetful

son was in favour of resignation; Conybeare took the opposite view. Of his advice Lyell remarks, "The fact is, Conybeare's notion of these things is what the English public have not yet come up to, which, if they had, the geological professorship in London would be a worthy aim for any man's

at the University of Bonn are worth recording. "The Professors have to lecture for nine months in the year-too much, I should think, for allowing time for due advancement of the teacher." Lyell's desires in regard to remuneration seem reasonable enough. He is anxious to earn by his scien

sures, such as an evening with the Somervilles, or a dinner party at the Murchisons, a talk with Babbage or Fitton, or a symposium at the Geological Club, at which it is sometimes evident that good care was taken lest science should become too dry. One passage in his diary indicates that sixty years have considerably changed the habi

and Lyell uses the opportunity, as he says, to fire occasional shots at Buckland, Sedgwick, and others who are still hankering after catastrophic convulsions and all-but universal deluges. As a further encouragement, his publisher, Murray, agrees willingly to a reprint of the first volume of the "Principles," and only hesitates between an edition of 750 or of 1,000 copies. About this time, also, he was asked to undertake the presidency of the Geological Soci

lts, and smoothed rather than it impeded his path to fame; for in the summer-on July 12th-he ceased to be a bachelor. The marriage was celebrated at Bonn, where Miss Horner's family were still resi

tely travelled from Freiburg to Schaffhausen through the romantic defiles of the H?llenthal, and across the corner of the Black Forest. A journal was now needless, and probably the newly-married couple were too much engrossed with their own happiness to write many letters, for few details have been preserved about their Swiss tour. It was, however, comparativ

ce for some years. A state of happiness is not always indicated by much correspondence: probably it was so with Lyell; at any rate, a single letter, dated January 5th, gives the only information of his doings between September, 1832, and April, 1833. In this letter, however, he mentions that the Council of King's Col

college last year and two this." Had the Council stated boldly that the College did not appoint professors to lecture urbi et orbi, their policy, though it would have appeared a little selfish and might have proved shortsighted, would have been defensible, because the institution was founded for the education of a particular class. But the reason assigned was open to Lyell's retort, and gave the impression of unreality. It is not impossible that the decision was the result of secret "wire-pulling," and represented not so much a fear of the disturbing influence of the fair sex as a dread of the popularity of the subject. Geology was still regarded with grave

e except his wife-had been down with the influenza, which in that year was even more rampant in London than it has been in any of its recent visits. But,

TNO

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rposition of crystalline schists to rocks with fossils is due to over-folding or over-thrust faulting-i.e. the schists are the older rocks. Though the Secondary rocks of the Al

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contempt for, mineralogy, which became conspicuous between the years 1840 and 1870,

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s, structures curiously resembling lamination and ripple-mark may be produced in certain gneisses and crystalline schists by other cause

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rwards Dean of Llandaff, an eminent

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could assume, under certain conditions, the same position in the others. This carried with it some privileges, tho

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t only ceased to grow, but also had been nearly washed

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Professorship after he