STEADY PROGRESS.
The "Principles of Geology" had been completed and published for
thirteen years, yet catastrophism, as we learn from a correspondence
with Edward Forbes,[116] dated September, 1846, was dying hard.
"Agassiz, Alcide D'Orbigny, and their followers [were still] trying to
make out sudden revolutions in organic life in support of equally
hypothetical catastrophes in the physical history of the globe."[117] A
remark in Forbes's reply is striking:--
"You are pleased to compliment my paper on its
_originality_. Any praise from you must ever be among the
greatest gratifications to me, and to any honest labourer in
the great field of Nature. But I had rather hear the views I
have set forward be proved _not original_ than the contrary.
It seems to me that the surest proof of the _truth_ of such
conclusions as I have summed up at the end of my essay is
the fact of their not being _original_ so far as _one_
person is concerned, and of their having become manifest to
_more than one_ mind, either about the same time or
successively, without communication. I believe laws discover
themselves to individuals, and not that individuals discover
laws. If a law have truth in it, many will see it about the
same time."
In this month also the Lyells removed from Hart Street to 11, Harley
Street. The house where they had spent fourteen years very happily was
not left without regret, but it had become too small. They had no
children, but a rapidly increasing geological collection takes up almost
as much room as (though it is much more silent than) a growing family.
The removal of a geological collection is a laborious business; and,
besides this, Lyell was preparing a new edition of the "Principles" and
writing a book about his recent travels in America. Still, to judge from
his letters, he found time for some pleasant social distractions; for
his letters to the old home at Kinnordy contain more often than formerly
interesting references to talks with such men as Macaulay, Milman, and
Rogers, Lord Clarendon and Lord Lansdowne. The seventh edition of the
"Principles," condensed into a bulky single volume, was published early
in 1847, and in the following June Lyell attended the meeting of the
British Association at Oxford, which appears to have been no less
pleasant than successful, although "out of twenty-four Heads of Houses
only four were at Oxford to receive the Association." On this occasion,
he writes, he became better acquainted with "Ruskin, who was secretary
of our Geological Section." The remainder of this summer was spent in
Scotland, and the rest of the year, with most of the following one, was
devoted to quiet work. Still, Lyell took an active part in a crisis
through which, about this time, the Royal Society was passing. A number
of the Fellows, including most of those eminent in science, were anxious
to raise the standard for admission into the Society. For many years
past the "three letters" had often signified little more than an
indication of good means and social position, coupled with a certain
interest in scientific pursuits. The reformers prevailed, after a long
struggle "with a set of obstructives compared with whom Metternich was
a progressive animal," and the present _status_ of the society is the
result. Incidental remarks in Lyell's letters to his relations also
indicate that he was becoming well known in circles other than
scientific, of which a further proof was given in the autumn of 1848,
when he received the offer of knighthood. Of course, in any country
where "orders of merit" exist, other than Great Britain, Lyell would
have been "decorated" years ago, but we manage things differently. As a
rule, we let science and literature be their own reward, and, as an
exception, confer the same distinction on a man who has won a world-wide
reputation (provided he is fairly rich) and on an opulent tradesman who
is accidently prominent on some auspicious occasion, or is a local
wirepuller in party politics. Lyell went over from Kinnordy to Balmoral
to receive the intended honour, and had, as he writes, "a most agreeable
geological exploring on the banks of the Dee, into which Prince Albert
entered with much spirit." In February, 1849, he was elected for the
second time President of the Geological Society, and in the autumn, when
at Kinnordy, was again invited to Balmoral, where he had some
interesting talks with Prince Albert on subjects ranging from various
educational and broad political questions to the entomology of
Switzerland, Scotland, and the Isle of Wight.
In the middle of September he attended the meeting of the British
Association at Birmingham, where he was for the third time President of
the Geological Section. A few weeks later his father, whose health had
been for some time failing, died at Kinnordy.[118] The latter was a
rich man, but as he made liberal provision for his daughters and younger
sons, Sir Charles, though he succeeded to a considerable estate, found
himself unable to afford the expense of keeping up Kinnordy as well as a
house in London. Which, then, was henceforth to be his home? The
attractions of Kinnordy were obvious, but the long distance from the
metropolis was a serious drawback, while the duties of a resident
landlord would have interfered much with his geological work, which
would have been still more hampered by the severance from libraries,
museums, and intercourse with fellow-workers. Thus he felt it his duty
to retain his house in London and to let Kinnordy, though, as his mother
and sisters retreated to the "dower house," he was able from time to
time to visit the old place. The decision probably was less painful than
it otherwise would have been from the fact that his boyhood had been
spent in England. At any rate, it was a wise one, in regard to both his
own reputation and the progress of science in general.
In the summer of 1850, Sir Charles augmented his experience and
refreshed old memories by a tour in Germany. During this he saw for the
first time the Roth-todt-liegende or Lower Permian conglomerates at
Halle and at Eisenach, as well as the great lava streams which had
supplied them with so much of their materials. Also he went to the
Brocken in order to examine into Von Buch's extraordinary assertion that
the granite had "come up in a bubble." This, it is needless to say, was
speedily pricked. The loess also, that singular deposit which wraps
like a mantle so much of the undulating ground in Northern Germany,
evidently engaged his attention, and we find the fruits of these studies
in a later work. In addition to all this, he did more than glance at the
Maestricht Chalk, the "Wealden" coal of Hanover, the Tertiary deposits
near Berlin, the Palaeozoic rocks of the Hartz, and the scenery of the
Saxon Switzerland.
His books, his scientific papers, and Presidential addresses to the
Geological Society, his duties as a commissioner, at first for the
Exhibition of 1851, and somewhat later for the reform of the University
of Oxford, kept him pretty well employed till August, 1852, when he for
the third time crossed the Atlantic to deliver another course of
lectures at the Lowell Institute, Boston. Though he was back in England
before Christmas, he found time for some geological work in America, the
most important item in which was an excursion from Halifax in company
with his old acquaintance, Mr. J. W. Dawson, to the Nova Scotian
coalfield. On this occasion he passed through a fair amount of country
still uncleared, which made the journey more interesting; he had also
opportunities of appreciating the effects of ice in moving and piling up
boulders on the shores of lakes, and obtained still more evidence in
regard to this, on reaching the sea-coast in the neighbourhood of the
coalfield. But their labour was rewarded by one discovery of exceptional
importance. In the trunk of a tree which had died and become hollow in a
forest of the Carboniferous period, they found entombed the skeleton of
an animal. Whether this were a fish or a reptile was at first hotly
disputed, but finally it proved to be an amphibian.
On his return to England, Sir Charles was kept for some time fully
employed by the preparation of the ninth edition of the "Principles,"
but early in the summer of 1853 he went for the fourth time to
America--on this occasion in company with Lord Ellesmere--as
commissioner to the Exhibition held at New York. But now his time was
fully taken up by official duties, and his visit was a short one, for he
returned before the end of July, and was soon afterwards invited to
visit Osborne and give some account of his journey to the Queen and
Prince Albert.
Very early in 1854 he again left England, in company with Lady Lyell and
Mr. and Mrs. Bunbury, to visit Madeira. Some three weeks were devoted to
a careful study of the geology of that island,[119] partly with the view
of determining whether it afforded any support to Von Buch's favourite
notion that volcanic cones were mainly formed by upheaval. As might be
anticipated, the evidence was distinctly unfavourable. The island was
proved to be mainly composed of volcanic material, cones of basaltic
scoria, and great flows of similar lava, which had been piled
successively one on another in the open air to a depth of about 4,000
feet. This mass had been subsequently pierced by dykes, worn by storm
and stream, and in one or two places deeply grooved by rivers. There
were, indeed, some underlying beds of marine origin, which, in one part
of the island, rose to a height of 1,200 feet above the sea, and thus
indicated a certain amount of upheaval; but even this was not of the
kind which Von Buch's hypothesis required, while the rest of the
evidence, including that afforded by some tuffs containing fossil
plants, proved that the major part of the island had been formed above
water.
From Madeira they went on to Teneriffe, Palma, and the Grand Canary. Of
this part of the journey few details are given, but the results were
afterwards incorporated with one of his books.[120] To the Peak of
Teneriffe the reference is comparatively brief. Of Palma the account is
much fuller, for this island had been regarded by Von Buch, who visited
it in 1825, as a type of his "craters of elevation"--an idea which was
dispelled by Lyell's investigation. The Grand Canary, like Madeira,
proved to be formed of masses of subaerial volcanic rock, perhaps even
thicker than those in Madeira, which also rested upon some upraised
marine deposits of Miocene age.
In the course of 1854 Sir Charles received from his own University the
honorary degree of D.C.L. Much time was spent in working up the results
of his last journey, some of which were communicated to the Geological
Society.[121] In the spring of 1855 he went to the Continent, studying,
among other matters, the drifts in the neighbourhood of Berlin. In the
summer he visited Scotland, made the acquaintance of Hugh Miller, worked
over Arthur's Seat, Blackford Hill, and "the coast of Fife from Kinghorn
to Kirkcaldy." It would be hard to find a set of sections better
adapted for the study of ancient volcanic rocks, both contemporaneous
and intrusive, than this coast affords; and his experience in Madeira
and the Canaries enabled him to regard "the Edinburgh and Fife rocks
with very different eyes."
One or two of his published letters about this period have a special
interest, for they show that his views on the origin of species were
undergoing a gradual modification. Speaking of some strange variations
in the flower of an orchideous plant,[122] he refers, half in jest, to
"ugly facts, as Hooker, clinging (like me) to the orthodox faith, calls
these and other abnormal vagaries"; and again, the following sentences
do not come from a man who is firm in his belief[123]:--
"When Huxley, Hooker, and Wollaston were at Darwin's last
week, they (all four of them) ran a tilt against species
further, I believe, than they are deliberately prepared to
go--Wollaston least unorthodox. I cannot easily see how they
can go so far, and not embrace the whole Lamarckian
doctrine. Huxley held forth last week about the oxlip, which
he says is unknown on the Continent. If we had met with it
in Madeira and nowhere else, or the cowslip, should we not
have voted them true species? Darwin finds, among his
fifteen varieties of the common pigeon, three good genera
and about fifteen good species, according to the received
mode of species and genus-making of the best ornithologists,
and the bony skeleton varying with the rest! After all, did
we not come from an ourang, seeing that man is of the Old
World, and not from the American type of anthropomorphous
mammalia?"
Sir Charles and Lady Lyell were again on the Continent in the summer of
1856, examining the drifts of Northern Germany, visiting Humboldt at
Berlin, discussing geological questions, especially in regard to
Carboniferous plants, at Breslau with Roemer and Goeppert; working over
the Riesengebirge; then going on to Dresden, and passing through the
Saxon Switzerland to Aussig. The coalfield north-west of the former city
was not neglected, the great breccia beds of the Rothliegende were again
examined, and account was taken of Ramsay's opinion that certain British
Permian breccias were glacial in origin. Close attention was also
bestowed upon the great masses of hard quartzose grit, through which the
Elbe has carved its way--the Quader of Saxony; for this formation, "a
grit wholly deficient in calcareous matter, corresponds to the more
purely calcareous rock (Chalk) of Great Britain, and yet contains here
and there the same shells." He did not neglect the Brown Coal[124]
between Toeplitz and Aussig, and, on reaching Prague, made the
acquaintance of Barrande, who took him to see those older Palaeozoic
rocks among which the great palaeontologist had been labouring for nearly
a quarter of a century. Then the travellers proceeded to Vienna, and
after that to the Styrian Alps, to visit various interesting sections in
the Salzkammergut, such as the classic ground at Gosau and the Triassic
limestones near Hallstadt, where the last survivors of the Palaeozoic
ages are entombed with the representatives of the period. His letters,
like many others of earlier date, indicate that, notwithstanding the
fascinations of geology, neither living molluscs, nor insects, nor
plants had ceased to interest. They returned by way of Munich, Ulm,
Zuerich and Paris, reaching England about the end of October.
The summer of 1857 was devoted to another Continental tour, rather more
restricted than the former, but by no means unimportant. They went
leisurely through Belgium and up the Rhine into Switzerland, halting at
different places either to study sections of special interest or to
confer with eminent geologists. Part of a letter written at this
time[125] gives a valuable insight into the intention of these journeys
and the character of the author, who was now in his sixtieth year:--
"I hope to continue for years travelling, making original
observations, and, above all, going to school to the
younger, but not, for all that, young geologists, whom I
meet everywhere, so far ahead of us old stagers that they
are familiar with branches of the science, fast rising into
importance, which were not thought of when I first began."
Switzerland, obviously, was visited on this occasion with a very
definite purpose. De Charpentier, Escher von der Linth, and other local
geologists, had been for some time asserting that the glaciers of the
Alps, at no remote epoch in geological history, had attained to an
enormous size, had buried the Swiss lowland and covered it with morainic
deposits, and had even welled up high against the flanks of the Jura,
where the huge blocks of protogine from the Mont Blanc range--such as
Pierre a bot and its companion erratics, full 800 feet above the Lake of
Neuchatel--indicated one position of its terminal moraine. Formerly, in
common with many other geologists, Sir Charles had supposed these blocks
to have been transported from the Alpine peaks by ice-rafts on the sea,
at a time when the whole region stood at a considerably lower level. But
now, after examining the erratics, their regular and significant
distribution, the other glacial debris, the ice-worn surfaces of rock
beneath it, and ascertaining the distinctly terrestrial character of the
deposits all about the mountains, he unreservedly admitted land-ice to
be the only possible agent, and, in accepting this hypothesis, perceived
clearly that he must not shrink from applying it to Scotland. Then he
plunged into the mountains to examine and follow the track of the
retreating ice-sheet up to the glaciers which are still at work among
the higher peaks, passing up the valley of the Reuss, crossing the Furka
Pass, and descending the Rhone valley to Visp, but turning aside to
examine the earth pillars on the flank of the Eggishorn.[126] Another,
and a larger group of these pillars--instances of the erosive action of
rain-water on morainic material--was seen near Stalden, in the
Visp-thal; but these had been damaged by the earthquake which two years
before had severely shaken this part of the Alps. At Zermatt the
characteristics of glaciers and the effects of ice were carefully
studied among the grandest of Alpine scenery; then, on returning to the
Rhone Valley, they crossed the Alps by the Simplon and went on to Turin.
Here he took the opportunity of visiting the huge moraine near Ivrea,
which rises from the lowland like a range of hills, and of
investigating the erratics of the Superga, satisfying himself that they
really belonged to the Miocene deposits of that hill, and were
indicative of the existence of glaciers in the Alps of that epoch, which
had been large enough to reach the sea-level, and to send off masses of
ice laden with boulders. Then they went on to Genoa, and along the
beautiful Riviera di Levante to Pisa; thence, after a short visit to
Florence, proceeding direct from Leghorn to Naples. Here, he once more
examined Vesuvius, and had the luck to see lava streams actually in
motion--"some going fast, others going very slow"--a sight which "gave
him many new ideas." A study also of the dykes of Somma convinced him
that they afforded no support to De Beaumont's idea of a distension of
the mass.[127]
From Naples he went to Sicily, in order to make a second examination of
Etna, and then, after rejoining Lady Lyell, spent some time in the
neighbourhood of Rome, visiting the old volcanic district of the Alban
Hills, and making excursions, as they travelled northward, into the
Apennines. They returned through France, reaching London towards the end
of December.
But, for a worker so thorough in his methods, this visit to the
volcanoes was not enough, so next year, after spending the earlier part
of the summer with his brother's[128] family in the neighbourhood of
Darmstadt, he left Lady Lyell there, and set off towards the end of
August for a third examination both of Vesuvius and of Etna. Travelling
rapidly up the valley of the Rhine, he went by Geneva to Culoz, and over
Mont Cenis to Turin and Genoa, without halting for geological work, and
thence by sea to Naples. Lava was still flowing from Vesuvius, that
black mass, with its strange rope-like folds and slaggy wrinkles,[129]
now so well known to every visitor. Accompanied by Professor
Guiscardi--one of the most genial and helpful of leaders--Sir Charles
made his way to a vent at the base of the principal cone, where the lava
was still welling forth from "a small grotto, looking as fluid as water
where it first issued, and moving at a pace which you would call rapid
in a river. White-hot, at first, in a canal four or five feet broad,
then red before it had got on a yard, then in a few feet beginning to be
covered by a dark scum, which thickened fast and was carried along on
the surface." But the great question, whether a volcano was mainly a
"crater of elevation" or a "crater of ejection," was ever present to his
mind; so, in addition to studying the grand sections displayed in the
crags of Monte Somma, he devoted two days to the exploration of the
ravines which furrow its outer slopes. He also found time to have
another look at the Temple of Serapis, and to examine the Solfatara,
which is a striking example of a crater at once broad and low.
After a week's halt at Naples, Sir Charles resumed his journey to
Sicily, landing at Messina on September 10th. By the 15th he was once
more on the slopes of Etna, and had begun a twelve-day period of hard
work on the mountain, passing five nights in very rough quarters at the
Casa degli Inglesi, 9,600 feet above sea-level. During this stay he
ascended the principal cone, carefully examining both the larger and the
smaller craters, and descended into the Val del Bove, a laborious
expedition, but one which well repaid him by throwing much light on the
structure of the volcanic mass. Still he was not yet satisfied, for
after he had descended to Zafarana, he returned to spend another night
at the Casa degli Inglesi in order to satisfy himself about one or two
details. From Zafarana also he went again to the Val del Bove, checking
and increasing his notes, and devoted another day to a most interesting
excursion through picturesque scenery as far as the watershed between
this vast hollow in the mountain side and the neighbouring Val di
Tripodo. On all these excursions Sir Charles, as far as possible, rode,
remarking to his wife, "I feel here that a good mule is like presenting
an old geologist with a young pair of legs." Work on the mountain ended,
he spent a little time in examining the Tertiary beds of the
neighbouring lowland, and then, getting back to Messina about the middle
of October, returned in due course to England.
These two journeys in succession greatly augmented his knowledge of the
structure of volcanic cones, and enabled him to deal the death-blow to
the "crater of elevation" hypothesis which had found such favour among
Continental geologists. He could now prove that lava would solidify in a
compact form on slopes of thirty-five or even forty degrees--a fact
which had been stoutly denied by advocates of that hypothesis, and was
able to offer an explanation of the singular structure of the Val del
Bove, viz. that it was a huge gulf, formed by a series of mighty
explosions, similar to those which shattered half of the old crater of
Vesuvius,[130] and sent one side of Bandai San[131] flying through the
air. He returned to England satisfied that his feet were on firm ground,
if such a phrase be permissible in regard to a volcano, and that the
results[132] of this conscientious labour in the fulness of his age had
strengthened him in the position which he had adopted in his scientific
youth.
In the next year (1859) Lyell also travelled, though the journeys were
not so lengthy as their two predecessors. Still, in the spring he
visited both Holland and Le Puy in Auvergne, and in the earlier part of
the autumn attended the meeting of the British Association at Aberdeen,
under the presidency of Prince Albert. A strong body of geologists were
present, and Lyell was for the fourth time in the chair of the
Geological Section, the Prince coming to hear his address. Among the old
friends whom he met was one who would have been a suitable husband for
the famous Countess of Desmond, for Lyell writes of him to Mrs. Horner,
his wife's mother, "Dr. F. at ninety-four looks well enough, but having
eaten turtle-soup, and melon too close to the rind, and other
imprudences, is not quite well to-day!" _O dura Doctorum ilia!_ The
meeting ended, Lyell with some geological friends went off to Elgin to
examine the sandstone quarried at Cutties Hillock, near that town. The
rock closely resembles the ordinary Old Red Sandstone; it seemed at
first sight to form a continuous mass, yet in one place it contained a
fossil fish belonging to that period, and in another the remains of a
reptile (_Telerpeton_). After some days of careful study, the Rev. W. S.
Symonds, who was one of the party, came to the conclusion (which has
been fully ratified by later investigations) that the deposits were of
different ages; the one with the fish being truly "Old Red," the other,
with the reptile, "New Red." The chief cause of the puzzle is that the
sand which has been derived from the older rock has gone to form the
newer one, and that the usual indications of a discontinuity are
practically absent. It affords a valuable caution, for it shows that
Nature sometimes does set traps, which might well catch even the most
wary geologist.
In the same autumn Lyell read Darwin's great work on "The Origin of
Species," by which his scientific position was finally determined, for
his letters show that, if any objection to the leading principles in his
friend's views had still lingered in his mind, they were overcome by the
perusal of this masterly specimen "of close reasoning and long sustained
argument."
FOOTNOTES:
[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.