Charles Lyell and Modern Geology - Bonney Thomas George

Скачать книгу

was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1826.

12

It appeared in the Edin. Journ. Sci., iii. (1825) p. 112, being his first actual publication. Its importance consisted in proving that serpentine was, or rather had been, an igneous rock. If proper attention had been paid to it, fewer mistaken statements and hypotheses would have attained the dignity of appearing in print.

13

Dr. Gideon A. Mantell, a surgeon by profession, at that time resident in Lewes, who made valuable contributions to the geology of South-East England, and was also distinguished for his popular lectures and books. He died in 1852.

14

Probably referring to an article on Scrope's "Geology of Central France," in which he shows that he fully accepted the Huttonian doctrine of interpreting the geology of past ages by reference to the causes still at work. It appeared in the Quarterly Review, Oct. 1827, vol. xxxvi. p. 437.

15

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 169.

16

Dr. John MacCulloch, author (among other works) of the "Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland." He was an excellent geologist on the mineralogical side, but had little sympathy with palæontology or with the views to which Lyell inclined. He died in 1835.

17

This district had been already explored by Mr. G. P. Scrope, the first edition of whose classic work, "The Volcanoes of Central France," was published in 1826.

18

Sir John F. W. Herschel, the second of the illustrious astronomers of that name.

19

Sir W. J. Hooker.

20

Certain passages in a letter of Sidonius Apollinaris, Bishop of Clermont, dated about 460 A.D., and in the works of Alcimus Avitus, Archbishop of Vienne, about half a century later, have been interpreted as referring to volcanic eruptions somewhere in Auvergne. This, however, is disputed by many authorities. (See Geological Magazine, 1865, p. 241.)

21

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 199.

22

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 238.

23

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 215.

24

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 252.

25

Ibid.

26

Ut suprà, p. 253.

27

"Reliquiæ Diluvianæ, or Observations on Organic Remains contained in Caves, Fissures, and Diluvial Gravel, and on other Geological Phenomena attesting the Action of an Universal Deluge." By Professor Buckland. 1823.

28

Ut suprà, p. 254.

29

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 255.

30

Ut suprà, p. 256.

31

Further work has not verified some of these statements. There can be no question that a great deal of rock in the Alps is much older than even the Trias. The apparent superposition 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 Alps have undergone, in places, some modification and mineral changes, these are very different from the metamorphism of those crystalline schists which have a stratified origin.

32

Now "University College," London, having been incorporated by Royal Charter under that title in November, 1836.

33

Ut suprà, p. 258.

34

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. pp. 269-271.

35

When he left the publisher had not decided whether it should be issued at once or kept back till October.

36

D'Aubuisson, as time has shown, foresaw a real danger. The neglect of, if not contempt for, mineralogy, which became conspicuous between the years 1840 and 1870, or thereabouts, seriously impeded the progress of geology, at any rate in England.

37

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 276.

38

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 283.

39

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 296.

40

Subsequent experience has shown that, while the above observations are beyond all question in the case of ordinary sedimentary rocks, structures curiously resembling lamination and ripple-mark may be produced in certain gneisses and crystalline schists by other causes. Still, in many schists, they have originated in the way suggested by Lyell, and indicate that the rock formerly was deposited by water.

41

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 303.

42

Ut suprà, p. 305.

43

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 313.

44

The Rev. W. D. Conybeare, afterwards Dean of Llandaff, an eminent geologist, rather senior to Lyell.

45

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 316.

46

It was formerly conceded by the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin that a Master of Arts in any one could assume, under certain conditions, the same position in the others. This carried with it some privileges, though not the suffrage and the full rights of the degree. Lyell had proceeded to the degree of M.A. at Oxford in 1821.

47

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 318.

48

Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 328.

Скачать книгу