Charles Lyell and Modern Geology

110

The formation, however, does not belong to the Carboniferous system, but is shown by its fossils to be Jurassic in age.

111

It is described and figured in later editions of the "Principles of Geology," chap. xv. (eleventh edition).

112

A species of Gnathodon.

113

Gnathodon cuneatus.

114

A bayou is the name given to an old channel of the river. When the latter is making a series of horseshoe curves, the stream often cuts through the neck of land which separates its nearest parts. The water then takes the shortest course, the entrances to the old channel are silted up, and it becomes a horseshoe-shaped pool.

115

T. Carlyle ("Letter on Secular Education").

116

In reference to an essay written by him on the connection between the fauna and flora of the British Isles and geological changes. ("Memoirs of the Geological Survey," i. p. 336.)

117

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol ii. p. 110.

118

He died November 8th, 1849.

119

He had the advantage of the company of Mr. C. Hartung, who was an excellent naturalist and well acquainted with the island.

120

"Elements of Geology" (sixth edition), pp. 621-635.

121

"On the Geology of Some Parts of Madeira" (Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., x. p. 325).

122

In a letter to Mr. Bunbury, dated November 13th, 1854 (Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. ii. p. 199). It is written from 53, Harley Street, one in the previous August bearing the superscription of 11, Harley Street, so that he appears (though there is no allusion to this in his published letters or journals) to have removed into another house in the same street. The number of this was subsequently altered.

123

Another letter to Mr. Bunbury, dated April 30th, 1856 (ibid., p. 212).

124

This deposit belongs to the Tertiary era (Oligocene system).

125

Life, Letters, and Journals, ii. p. 243.

126

The largest, called the Zwerglithurn, is about one and a half hours walk above Viesch.

127

This had been asserted in support of the hypothesis of "craters of elevation."

128

Colonel Lyell had retired from the army and returned to England a short time before the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny.

129

See Professor J. W. Judd: "Volcanoes" (International Scientific Series), Fig. 22.

130

In the famous eruption of A.D. 79.

131

A volcano of Japan.

132

These results are worked into the tenth edition of the "Principles" (chaps. xxv. and xxvi.). See also a paper on Stony Lava on Steep Slopes of Etna (Proc. Roy. Soc. 1858, ix. p. 248). He received the Copley Medal from the Royal Society in November.

133

Found by M. Boucher de Perthes, who had published a book on the subject in 1847, and had announced the discovery about seven years earlier; but geologists, for various reasons, were not fully satisfied on the matter till the visit of Messrs. Prestwich and John Evans (now Sir) in 1857.

134

He went to Florence in 1862, but how far this was for geological work is not stated.

135

Vol. xv. p. 311.

136

"Antiquity of Man," chap. xxiv.

137

The nature of Eozoon, whether it be the remains of a foraminifer of unusual size and peculiar habit of growth, or merely a very exceptional arrangement of its constituent minerals, has been since the above-named date a fruitful subject of controversy. For some years the balance of opinion was in favour of an organic origin; now it seems to be distinctly tending in the other direction.

138

Report of Brit. Assoc., 1864, p. xxiv.

139

Colonel Lyell's eldest son, the present baronet.

140

He was fortunate in obtaining the help of Miss Arabella Buckley, a lady of congenial tastes in literature and science.

141

The relationship was unusually close, for Colonel Lyell had married another Miss Horner.

142

For a description of this fine collection of prehistoric antiquities, see "Flint Chips," by E. T. Stevens, 1870.

143

Life, Letters, and Journals, ii. p. 440.

144

Life, Letters, and Journals, ii. p. 443.

145

The book, thus abbreviated, and entitled "The Student's Elements of Geology," was published in 1871. A second edition appeared in February, 1874; a third, revised by Mr. Leonard Lyell and others, in 1878; and a fourth, edited by Prof. P. M. Duncan, in 1885.

146

"Antiquity of Man" (fourth edition), chap. vii.

147

She had been suffering from influenza, but had accompanied her husband and nephews to Ludlow at the beginning of the month. They became uneasy at her increasing debility, and returned to town on the 14th ("Life, Letters, and Journal of Sir C. Bunbury," iii. p. 9).

148

He mentions, on January 5th, 1856, that she had not been well enough to breakfast with him, "for the second time only since our marriage."

149

Quoted from an obituary notice by G. S. Hillard, Esq., in the Boston (U.S.) Daily Advertiser (printed in Life, Letters, and Journals, ii. p. 467).

150

This was published after his death. He had completed one volume; the other was revised by his nephew Leonard.

151

About the same time he was admitted to the freedom of the Turners' Company in the City of London.

152

Now Professor Judd, F.R.S., of the Royal College of Science, South Kensington.

153

Life, Letters, and Journals, ii. pp. 453-459.

154

The Club consists of a certain number of Fellows of the Geological Society, who dine together before the evening meetings.

155

His brother Thomas, who had retired from the Navy with the rank of captain, had died (unmarried) some years before at the jointure house (Shiel Hill), Kinnordy, where he had resided with one of his sisters.

156

A marble bust, a copy by Theed of the original executed by Gibson, is placed near the grave.

157

In this paragraph I have ventured to quote largely, and more or less verbatim, from the words of Miss Buckley (Lyell's secretary) in the article on his life, written by my friend Professor G. A. J. Cole, in the "Dictionary of National Biography," vol. xxxiv.

158

"Life of Sir A. Ramsay," by Sir A. Geikie, chap. v.

159

Vidi tantum, when his powers were beginning to fail, but it is this expression which is stamped on my mind as characteristic of the face in Charles Lyell, and, I may add, also in Charles Darwin.

160

J. W. Dawson, cited in the " Dictionary of National Biography."

161

Ut suprà.

162

I may add my own testimony. When the second edition of the "Student's Elements" was passing through the press. I ventured to write to him about one or two petrological details, which I thought might be more precise. Though at that time I had published but few papers, I received more than one kind letter with the request that I would read some of the proof-sheets of the book and suggest alterations.

163

"The Origin of Species," published in 1859.

164

"Life and Letters of C. Darwin," ii. p. 326.

165

Quoted in Life, Letters, and Journals, ii. p. 461.

166

In 1865. "Life and Letters of Sedgwick," ii. p. 412.

167

"Life, Letters, and Journal of Sir C. Bunbury," iii. p. 66.

168

"Life and Letters of C. Darwin," i. p. 76.

169

He maintained for many years an interesting correspondence with Mr. G. Ticknor, of Boston, U.S.A., in which he often discusses political questions, both British and American.

170

"Travels in North America," chap. ix.

171

In the later part of his life he appears to have sympathised more with the "Unitarians," for he attended the services at Dr. Martineau's chapel in Little Portland Street, though I am not aware that he formally seceded from the Church of England.

172

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. ii. pp. 82-127. It must however, be remembered that the High Church party were not alone in their opposition; indeed, after a time, they were more tolerant of geologists than the extreme "Evangelical" school. I have some cuttings from the Record newspaper, dated about 1876, which are interesting examples of narrow-minded ignorance and theological arrogance.

173

Life, Letters, and Journal, i. p. 233. "Principles," i. 69 (eleventh edition).

174

He admits that when Lord Enniskillen and Murchison had seduced him, after a Geological Society meeting, to partake of pterodactyl (woodcock) pie and drink punch into the small hours, his work suffered for four or five days afterwards.

175

These were about seventy-six in number, the great majority written prior to the last twenty years of his life.

176

Such as the seeming intercalation of crystalline schists with fossiliferous rocks, or the immediate sequence of the two.