SUMMARY.
In stature, Sir Charles Lyell[157] was rather above the middle height,
somewhat squarely built, though not at all stout, with clear-cut,
intellectual features, and a forehead, broad, high, and massive. He
would have been a man of commanding presence, if his extremely short
sight had not obliged him to stoop and peer into anything he wished to
observe. This defect, in addition to the weakness of his eyes was a
serious impediment in field work. As Professor Ramsay remarked in 1851,
after spending a few days with him in the south of England, he required
people to point things out to him, and would have been unable to make a
geological map, "but understood all when explained, and speculated
thereon well."[158] This defect of sight, according to Sir J. W. Dawson,
who had been his companion in more than one excursion in Canada, was at
times even a source of danger. The expression of his face was one of
thoughtful power and gracious benignity.[159] "In his work, Lyell was
very methodical, beginning and ending at fixed hours. Accustomed to make
use of the help of others on account of his weak sight, he was
singularly unconscious of outward bodily movement, though highly
sensitive to pain. When dictating, he was often restless, moving from
his chair to his sofa, pacing the room, or sometimes flinging himself
full length on two chairs, tracing patterns on the floor, as some
thoughtful or eloquent passage flowed from his lips. But though a rapid
writer and dictator, he was sensitively conscientious in the correction
of his manuscript, partly from a strong sense of the duty of accuracy,
partly from a desire to save his publisher the expense of proof
corrections. Hence passages once finished were rarely altered, even
after many years, unless new facts arose."
The characteristic with which anyone who spent some time in Charles
Lyell's company was most impressed, was his thirst for knowledge,
combined with a singular openness, and perfect fairness of mind. He was
absolutely free from all petty pride, and from "that common failing of
men of science, which causes them to cling with such tenacity to
opinions once formed, even in the face of the strongest evidence."[160]
Ramsay wrote of him,[161] "We all like Lyell much; he is anxious for
instruction, and so far from affecting the bigwig, he is not afraid to
learn anything from anyone.[162] The notes he takes are amazing." No
man could have given a stronger proof of candour and plasticity of mind
and of his care for truth alone than Lyell did in dealing with the
question of the origin of species. From the first he approached it
without prejudice. So long as the facts adduced by Lamarck and others
appeared to him insufficient to support their hypotheses, he gave the
preference to some modification of the ordinarily accepted view--that a
species began in a creative act--but after reading Darwin's classic
work,[163] and discussing the subject in private, not only with its
author, but also with Sir J. Hooker and Professor Huxley, he was
convinced that Darwin was right in his main contention, though he held
back in regard to certain minor points, for which he thought the
evidence as yet insufficient. Of his conduct in this matter, Darwin
justly wrote: "Considering his age, his former views, and position in
society, I think his action has been heroic."[164] Dean Stanley, in the
pulpit of Westminster Abbey, on the Sunday following the funeral, summed
up in a few eloquent sentences the great moral lesson of Lyell's life.
"From early youth to extreme old age it was to him a solemn religious
duty to be incessantly learning, fearlessly correcting his own mistakes,
always ready to receive and reproduce from others that which he had not
in himself. Science and religion for him not only were not divorced, but
were one and indivisible."[165]
To ascertain the truth, and to be led by reason not by impulse, that was
Lyell's great aim. Sedgwick once[166] criticised his work in terms
which, in one respect, seem to me curiously mistaken: "Lyell ... is an
excellent and thoughtful writer, but not, I think, a great field
observer ... his mind is essentially deductive not inductive." The
former criticism, as has been already admitted, is just, but the latter,
_pace tanti viri_, seems to me the reverse of the truth. Surely there
never was a geologist whose habits and methods were more strictly
inductive than Lyell's. He would spare no pains, and hardly any expense,
to ascertain for himself what the facts were; he abstained from drawing
any conclusion until he had accumulated a good store; he compared and
marshalled them, and finally adopted the interpretation with which they
seemed most accordant. This interpretation, however, would be modified,
or even rejected, if new and important facts were discovered. Surely
this is the method of induction; surely this is the mode of reasoning
adopted by Darwin and by Newton, and even by Bacon himself. But
Sedgwick, great man as he was, almost unrivalled in the field, more
brilliant, though less persevering than Lyell, was not always quite free
from prejudices; and it may be noted that he more than once stigmatises
an opinion which he dislikes by declaring it not to be in accordance
with inductive methods. Sir Joseph Hooker's judgment was far more
accurate: "One of the most philosophical of geologists, and one of the
best of men"[167]; or that of Charles Darwin himself: "The science of
geology is enormously indebted to Lyell--more so, as I believe, than to
any other man who ever lived."[168]
Lyell felt a keen interest in the broader aspect of political questions,
and this not only in his own country,[169] though he took little or no
share in party struggles, for the vulgarity of the demagogue and the
coarseness of the hustings were offensive to a man of such refinement.
His opinions harmonised with his scientific habits of thought, always
progressive, but never extravagant. He was in favour of greater freedom
in education, of the restriction of class privileges, and of an
extension of the franchise, but he saw clearly that anything like
universal suffrage, as the world is at present constituted, would only
mean giving a preponderating influence to those least competent to wield
it; that is, to the more ignorant and easily deluded. As in such cases
the glib tongue would become more potent than the voice of reason, the
demagogue than the statesman, he feared that the standard of national
honour would be almost inevitably lowered, and national disaster be a
probable result. That all men are equal and entitled to an equal share
in the government--a dogma now regarded in some circles as almost
sacred--would have been repudiated by him with the quiet scorn of a man
who prefers facts to fancies, and inductive reasoning to sentimental
rhapsody. A partisan he could not be, for he saw too clearly that in
political matters truth and right were seldom a monopoly of any side,
and though by no means wanting in a certain quiet and restrained
enthusiasm, he had almost an abhorrence of fanaticism. One example may
serve for many, to indicate the way in which he regarded both this
spirit and any difficult question. Naturally he had a strong dislike to
slavery; he fully recognised the injustice and wrong to the negro, and
the evil effects upon the master. Nevertheless, after visiting the
Southern States, and giving the impressions of his journey, he thus
expresses himself: "The more I reflected on the condition of the slaves,
and endeavoured to think on a practical plan for hastening the period of
their liberation, the more difficult the subject appeared to me, and the
more I felt astonished at the confidence displayed by so many
anti-slavery speakers and writers on both sides of the Atlantic. The
course pursued by these agitators shows that, next to the positively
wicked, the class who are usually called 'well-meaning persons' are the
most mischievous in society." He then points out how a strong feeling
against slavery had been springing up in Virginia, Kentucky, and
Maryland; how the emancipation party had been gaining ground, and
slavery steadily retreating southwards, but "from the moment that the
abolition movement began, and that missionaries were sent to the
Southern States, a reaction was perceived--the planters took the
alarm--laws were passed against education--the condition of the slave
was worse, and not a few of the planters, by dint of defending their
institutions against the arguments and misrepresentations of their
assailants, came actually to delude themselves into a belief that
slavery was legitimate, wise, and expedient--a positive good in
itself."[170] At a subsequent period he speaks of Mrs. Beecher Stowe's
famous book, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," as "a gross caricature." But in the
great struggle between the Northern and Southern States, his sympathies
went with the former. It was the fairness of his criticisms, and his
hearty appreciation of the good side in American institutions, that won
him many friends and made his books welcome on that side of the
Atlantic.
Lyell's views on religious questions accorded, as might be expected,
with the general bent of his mind. He was a member of the Church of
England,[171] appreciated its services, the charm of music, and the
beauty of architecture, but he failed to understand why nonconformity
should entail penalties, whether legal or social. His mind was
essentially undogmatic; feeling that certainty was impossible in
questions where the ordinary means of verification could not be
employed, he abstained from speculation and shrank from formulating his
ideas, even when he was convinced of their general truth.
He was content, however, to believe where he could not prove, and to
trust, not faintly, the larger hope. So he worked on in calm confidence
that the honest searcher after truth would never go far astray, and that
the God of Nature and of Revelation was one. He sought in this life to
follow the way of righteousness, justice, and goodness, and he died in
the hope of immortality.
As he disapproved of any approach to persecution on the ground of
religion, so he objected strongly to the exclusive privileges which in
his day were enjoyed by the Church of England, especially to its virtual
monopoly of education. On this point he several times expresses himself
in forcible terms; as, for instance, in these words: "The Church of
England ascendency is really the power which is oppressive here, and not
the monarchy, nor the aristocracy. Perhaps I feel it too sensitively as
a scientific man, since our Puseyites have excluded physical science
from Oxford. They are wise in their generation. The abject deference to
authority advocated conscientiously by them can never survive a sound
philosophical education."[172] To this party--or to the "Catholic
movement," as it is now often called--in the Church of England, Lyell
had a strong dislike; he deemed their claims to authority unwarrantable,
their practices in many respects either childish or superstitious.
As we have endeavoured to bring out in the course of this volume the
guiding principles of Lyell's work, a brief recapitulation only is
needed as a conclusion. That work was regulated by two maxims: the one,
"Go and see"; the other, "Prefer reason to authority." To the first
maxim he gave expression more than once, while he was always inculcating
it by example. Imitating the well-known saying of Demosthenes in regard
to oratory, he emphatically declares that in order to form
comprehensive views of the globe, the first, the second, and the third
requisite is "travel."[173] What he preached, he practised; about a
quarter of the last fifty years of his life must have so been spent. Of
the second maxim also he was a living example. It was his practice not
only to see for himself, but also to judge for himself, in all questions
other than those necessarily reserved for specialists; his rule, that
thought should be free from the fear of man, but subject to the laws of
reasoning. As a young man he had advocated, almost single-handed,
scientific views which were unpopular alike with the older authorities
in geology and with the supposed friends of religion; he had protested
against the invocation of catastrophic destruction and cataclysmal flood
in order to clear away difficulties in the past history of the earth; in
other words, against an appeal to miracle, when a cause could be found
in the existing order of Nature; and he had disputed the right of any
priesthood, whether Romanist or Protestant, to hold the keys of
knowledge. He vindicated, against all corners, his claim--nay, his
birthright--to sit, as an earnest student, at the feet of Nature to
listen and to learn, as she chose to teach, whether by the acted drama
of the living world or by the silent record of the rocks. He was, in
short, more observer than theorist, more philosopher than poet, more a
servant of reason than a dreamer of dreams.
His example is one well worthy of remembrance at the present epoch. The
"whirligig of time" has brought its revenges, and has introduced into
geology a class of students almost unknown in the days when Lyell was
in his vigour. The developments of mineralogy and palaeontology, helpful
and valuable as they have been by making geology more of an exact
science and, in some cases, substituting order for confusion, have
tended to produce students very familiar with the apparatus of a
laboratory or the collections of a museum, but not with the face of the
earth. This, in itself, would not be necessarily hurtful, because the
field of geology is so wide that there is room for all; but it leads
sometimes to an undue exaltation of trifles, to an over-estimation of
the "mint, anise, and cummin" of science, to a waste of time upon what
is called the literature of the subject. This last often means either
searching much chaff for a few grains of wheat, or spending much labour
with the hope of discovering whether A or B was the first to confer a
name upon a species; the priority perhaps being only of a few months,
and that name neither particularly appropriate nor euphonious. Partly
from this, partly from other causes, the importance, nay, the absolute
necessity of travel, for the education of a geologist is now too often
forgotten. In this science there are many questions--some of them almost
fundamental--for which no perquisitions in a library, no research in a
laboratory, no studies in a museum, however conscientiously patient and
painstaking they may be, can be accepted as an adequate preparation;
questions in which Nature is at once the best book, the best laboratory,
and the best museum, and experience is the only safe teacher. What would
Lyell have said to men--and such might now be named--who undertook to
discuss wide geological problems with the most limited experience who,
for example, posed as authorities upon what ice can or cannot do,
without having even seen a glacier or speculated on the most intricate
questions in petrology without having studied more than some corner of
this island, or, indeed, without any precise knowledge of that? Would
not he--averse as he was to speaking severely--have censured them for
talking about things which they could not possibly understand, and for
darkening counsel by words without knowledge?
Lyell, no doubt, had exceptionally favourable opportunities. The eldest
son of a wealthy man--who contentedly acquiesced in his seeking fame
rather than fortune, and supplied him with the necessary funds--his time
was his own, as he had not only enough for his ordinary wants, but also
could afford to travel as much as he desired. His social position was
sufficiently good to facilitate his access to those who had already
attained to eminence. He was blessed with a sympathetic and helpful
wife, and they had no children. Thus they were perfectly free, both in
the disposal of their time at home and in their peregrinations abroad.
Besides these things they both enjoyed good health. Lyell's constitution
was not, indeed, so robust that he could take liberties; he had to be
careful about "cakes and ale," and to lead a fairly regular life,[174]
but by so doing he was able to be always in good condition for his work.
His eyes, in fact, were his only trouble and who is there who has not
got his own "thorn in the flesh"? Lyell also was happy in all his
domestic relations. His letters indicate that all the family--on both
sides--were on affectionate terms, and contain few references to
anxieties and troubles, such as the sickness and death of those dear to
him, until his life approached the period when such trials become
inevitable.
Thus free from the impediments which have beset many other men of marked
ability, such as weak health and physical suffering, the wearing anxiety
of an invalid wife or a sickly family, the harassing cares of pecuniary
losses or of an insufficient income, Lyell had an exceptional chance.
But other men have the same and do not use it; they are crippled by this
burden or diverted by that allurement, and "might have been" too often
becomes their epitaph. Lyell never faltered in the course which,
comparatively early in life, he had marked out for himself. With that
steady persistency and quiet energy which are characteristic of the
Lowland Scot, he put aside all temptations and everything which
threatened to interfere with his work. While neither recluse nor hermit,
neither churlish nor unsociable, nay, while thoroughly enjoying witty
and intellectual society, he allowed nothing to distract him from his
main purpose. Convinced that there was a work which he could do, and a
name which he could win, he was willing, for sake of this, to run risks
and to make sacrifices. He did not indeed despise fame, but he never
condescended to unworthy arts to obtain it; he held that the labourer
was worthy of his hire, but with him it was always "the work first, and
the wage second," whether that were coined gold or laurel wreath. He
was singularly free from all petty jealousies, and ready to learn from
all who could teach him anything, but he was no weakling, swayed by
every breath of wind, for he reached his conclusions slowly and
cautiously, and never stopped to ask whether they would be popular.
"Forward, for truth's sake," that was the motto of his life.
In yet another way was Lyell _felix opportunitate vitae_. In his days,
geology might be compared to a country which had been for some time
discovered but was not yet explored. Settlements had been established
here and there; in their neighbourhood some ground had been cleared, and
a firm base of operations had been secured, but around and beyond was
the virgin forest, the untrodden land. At almost every step the
traveller met with some fresh accession to his knowledge or a new
problem to solve. He could feel the allurement of expectation or the joy
of discovery even in countries otherwise well known; where now he can
hope only to pick up some tiny detail or to plunge into some
interminable controversy. If he now desires "fresh fields and pastures
new," he must wander beyond the limits of civilised lands; for within
these every crag is hammer-marked, and the official geologist is at work
making maps. But not only this, Lyell lived in the days when the
literature of his science was of very modest dimensions. This had its
obvious drawbacks, but it had also its advantages, which, perhaps, were
more than compensations. At the present day the conscientious student is
in danger of being overwhelmed by the mass of papers, pamphlets and
books, from all lands and in all languages--which he is expected, if not
to read, at least to scramble through before venturing to write on any
subject. Fifty years ago it required a very limited amount of
study--often only a few hours' research--to put the geologist in
possession of all that was known, so that he approached his theme very
much as a mathematician attacks a problem. This burden of scientific
literature, seeing that life is short and human strength is limited,
threatens to stifle the progress of science itself, and we can hardly
venture to expect that any more great generalisations will be made in
geology or palaeontology, unless a man arise who is daring enough to
subordinate reading to thinking, and so strong in his grasp of
principles that he can make light of details.
It has been sometimes said that Lyell was not an original thinker.
Possibly not; _vixere fortes ante Agamemnona_ is true in science no less
than in national history; there were mathematicians before Newton,
philosophic naturalists before Darwin, geologists before Lyell. He did
not claim to have discovered the principle of uniformity. He tells us
himself what had been done by his predecessors in Italy and in Scotland:
but he scattered the mists of error and illusion, he placed the idea
upon a firm and logical basis; in a word, he found uniformitarianism an
hypothesis, and he left it a theory. That surely is a more solid gift to
science, a better claim to greatness, than any number of brilliant
guesses and fancies, which, after coruscating for a brief season to the
amazement of a gaping crowd, explode into darkness, and are no more
seen. But to a certain extent Lyell has thrown his own work into the
shade. The fame of his books causes his numerous scientific papers[175]
to be overlooked; particularly his contributions to the history of
coalfields and to the classification of the Tertiary deposits. Moreover,
into these books he was constantly incorporating new and original
matter. We may be fairly familiar with the "Principles" and the
"Elements," but we fail to realise until we have read his "Life" and the
accounts of his two tours in America how much those books are made up
from the results of actual experience and personal study in the field.
It has been also said that Lyell carried the principle of "uniformity" a
little too far. But, suppose we concede this, does it amount to more
than the admission that he was human? It is almost inevitable that the
discoverer or prophet of a great truth, who has to encounter the storm
and stress of controversy, should state his case a little too strongly,
or should overlook some minor limitation. Suppose we grant that Lyell
was a little too lavish in his estimate of the time at the disposal of
geologists. The physicist had not then intervened, with arguments drawn
from his own science, to insist that neither earth nor sun can reckon
their years by myriads of myriads, and even now this controversy cannot
be regarded as closed. Suppose we grant that in accepting Hutton's
dictum, "I find in the earth no signs of a beginning," Lyell was misled
by appearances,[176] which have since proved to be delusive, and that
facts, so far as they go, point rather in the contrary direction. Well,
this point also is not yet to be regarded as settled; and of one thing,
at any rate, we may be sure, that if Lyell were now living he would
frankly recognise new facts, as soon as they were established, and would
not shrink from any modification of his theory which these might demand.
Great as were his services to geology, this, perhaps, is even
greater--for the lesson applies to all sciences and to all seekers after
knowledge--that his career, from first to last, was the manifestation of
a judicial mind, of a noble spirit, raised far above all party passions
and petty considerations, of an intellect great in itself, but greater
still in its grand humility; that he was a man to whom truth was as the
'pearl of price,' worthy of the devotion and, if need be, the sacrifice
of a life.
FOOTNOTES:
[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 supra._
[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.
INDEX.
Address to the British Association at Bath, 190
Alps, The, Glaciers of, 177
America, First visit to, 130
----, Second visit to, 155
----, Third visit to, 172
----, Fourth visit to, 173
"Antiquity of Man" published, 185
----, Synopsis of, 186
Aurignac Cave, The, Visit to, 200
Auvergne, Journey to, 33
Avicenna's treatise on minerals, 81
Bachelor of Arts, Degree of, conferred on him, 26
Bar, Called to the, 30
Baronet, Created a, 190
Beaumont, Elie de, his theory of mountain-chains, 96
Birth and birthplace, His, 9
Brittany, Tour in, 50
British Association, Address to, 190
Cave remains, Dr. Schmerling's collection, 101
Continental researches in geology, 21
Cromer, Investigations at, 196
Cuvier, Meets with, in Paris, 28
Darwin and Lyell, 120
----, his opinion of Lyell's character, 208
Death of Lady Lyell, 200
---- Sir Charles Lyell, 204
Denmark and Southern Norway, Researches in, 122
Deputy-Lieutenant of Forfar, Appointment as, 58
Deshayes, the eminent conchologist, 42
Diluvialists and Fluvialists, The, 43
Doctor of Laws degree conferred on him, 202
Eifel, Visit to the volcanic district of, 62
"Elements of Geology" published, 125
Engis skull, The, 102
Entomology, Early studies in, 15
Etna explored, 181
Family, The Lyell, 10
Father, His, 9
Fluvialists and Diluvialists, The, 43
"Forest Bed," The, 196
Frascatoro, his views on geology, 83
Generelli's theories, 87
Geological Society, Elected a Fellow of the, 27
----, His first papers to the, 28
----, Elected secretary of the, 28
----, Elected President of the, 111
Geology, First studies in, 19
----, Continental researches, 21
Glaciers of the Alps, His theory of the, 177
Grand Canary, Voyage to, 174
Great Dismal Swamp, The, explored, 141
Horner, Miss, Marriage with, 69
Humboldt, Meeting with, in Paris, 28
Huttonian Theory, The, 91
Infancy, 10
Inscription on Lyell's tombstone, 205
Ireland, Visit to, 152
Kessingland Cliffs and the "Forest Bed," 196
King's College, Lectures at, 68
Knighted, 170
Law, The, Studies for, 27
Lectures at King's College, 68
---- at the Royal Institution, 71
Leonardo da Vinci, his conclusions on geology, 83
Letter to Herschel on the Origin of Species, 118
Lyell family, The, 10
----, Lady, Death of, 200
----, Sir Charles, Death of, 204
"Lyellia," The moss named, 9
Madeira, Voyage to, 173
Marriage to Miss Horner, His, 69
Medal of the Royal Society presented to him, 111
Member of the Institute of France, Elected, 190
Midhurst, School Days at, 16
Moel Tryfaen, Crags of, 61
Montreal and Quebec, Journey to, 146
Moro's views, 87
Moss called "Lyellia," 9
Mother, His, 10
Naples, Visit to, 38
Narrow escape when a child, 11
New Orleans, Journey to, 161
Niagara Falls, His impressions of, 134
Normandy and Brittany, Researches in, 50
North America, Travels in, 130
"Omar the Learned," his "Retreat of the Sea," 82
Order of Scientific Merit bestowed by the King of Prussia, 190
Origin of Species, Letter to Herschel on the, 118
Oxford, Undergraduate days at, 19
Palma, Investigations at, 174
Personal characteristics of Lyell, 206
"Plastic Force" dogma, The, 84
Political views, His, 210
President of the Geological Society, Is elected, 111
"Principles of Geology," first volume published, 57
----, second volume published, 68
----, third volume published, 72
----, its history and various editions, 73
Professor of Geology at King's College, 58
Pyrenees, Visit to the, 52
Quebec and Montreal visited, 146
Religious Questions, His views on, 212
Ringwood, School days at, 12
Royal Institution, Lectures at, 71
Royal Society, Is elected a Fellow of the, 30 (note)
----, Medal of, presented to him, 111
Salisbury, School days at, 12
Sarum, Excursions to, 13
Scandinavia, Investigations in, 104
School days, 12
Schmerling's collection of cave-remains, 101
Scientific papers, large number written by him, 220
Scrope's work on "Volcanoes," 97
"Sea-serpent," Lyell's views concerning it, 157
"Second Visit to North America" published, 167
Stanley, Dean, his remarks respecting Lyell's life-work, 208
Switzerland, First tour in, 21
Teneriffe, Researches at, 174
Tombstone, Lyell's, Inscription on, 205
"Travels in North America" published, 130
Undergraduate days, 19
Vallisneri's conclusions, 86
Views on religious questions, Lyell's, 212
Vinci, Leonardo da, his conclusions on geology, 83
Wales, Visit to, 189
Werner's theories, 88
Will, Lyell's, 205
Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society presented to him, 194.
PRINTED BY CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED, LA BELLE SAUVAGE, LONDON,
E.C.
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| Typographical errors corrected in the text: |
| |
| Page 36 Vivarrais changed to Vivarais |
| Page 40 excellenza changed to eccellenza |
| Page 90 Vivarrais changed to Vivarais |
| Page 129 Brorgniart changed to Brongniart |
| Page 148 occured changed to occurred |
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