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Often appears with: fossils and the record of past life · experiment, observation, and evidence · geography and the description of places · the earth and its formation · matter, motion, and cause · weather, storms, and the seasons · volcanoes, earthquakes, and catastrophe · logic, method, and demonstration · fate, destiny, and necessity · scientific theories and their history · species, variation, and descent · history and the writing of history
Usually: argument (182) · curiosity (127) · skepticism (106) · detachment (41) · narrative (23) · reflection (23) · description (20) · wonder (8) · commentary or gloss (7) · record or table (7)
“Such insular sites afforded safe retreats, all communication with the mainland being cut off, except by boats, or by such wooden bridges as could be easily removed.” Charles Lyell, Sir, The Antiquity of Man · observation
“We know that nations, both before and after the introduction of metals, may continue in very different stages of civilisation, even after commercial intercourse has been established between them” Charles Lyell, Sir, The Antiquity of Man · insight
“But all such estimates must be considered, in the present state of science, as tentative and conjectural, since the rate of movement of the land may not have been uniform, and its direction not always upwards, and there may have been long stationary periods.” Charles Lyell, Sir, The Antiquity of Man · insight
“The year after this conversation I cited Schmerling's opinions, and the facts bearing on the antiquity of Man, in the 3rd edition of my 'Principles of Geology' (page 161, 1834).” Charles Lyell, Sir, The Antiquity of Man · observation
“Fortunately, a great part of the Engihoul cavern, situated on the right bank of the Meuse, was still in the same state as when Schmerling delved into it in 1831, and drew from it the bones of three human skeletons.” Charles Lyell, Sir, The Antiquity of Man · observation
“It has naturally been asked, if Man co-existed with the extinct species of the caves, why were his remains and the works of his hands never embedded outside the caves in ancient river-gravel containing the same fossil fauna?” Charles Lyell, Sir, The Antiquity of Man · observation
“Why should it be necessary for the geologist to resort for evidence of the antiquity of our race to the dark recesses of underground vaults and tunnels which may have served as places of refuge or sepulture” Charles Lyell, Sir, The Antiquity of Man · vivid
“The workmen who cut peat, or dredge it up from the bottom of swamps and ponds, declare that in the course of their lives none of the hollows which they have found, or caused by extracting peat, have ever been refilled, even to a small extent. They deny, therefore, that the peat grows.” Charles Lyell, Sir, The Antiquity of Man · observation
“These large fragments of stone abound both in the higher and lower level gravels round Amiens and at the higher level at Abbeville. They have also been traced far up the valley above Amiens, wherever patches of the old alluvium occur.” Charles Lyell, Sir, The Antiquity of Man · observation
“It is a new and emphatic illustration of the extreme imperfection of the geological record, of which even they who are constantly working in the field cannot easily form a just conception.” Charles Lyell, Sir, The Antiquity of Man · insight
“In attempting to settle the chronology of fluviatile deposits, it is almost equally difficult to avail ourselves of the evidence of organic remains and of the superposition of the strata.” Charles Lyell, Sir, The Antiquity of Man · insight
“One step at least we gain by the Bedford sections, which those of Amiens and Abbeville had not enabled us to make. They teach us that the fabricators of the antique tools, and the extinct mammalia coeval with them, were all post-glacial.” Charles Lyell, Sir, The Antiquity of Man · insight
Defoe describes his earlier roaming through plague streets and his investigation of mass burial pits in Aldgate parish—starting early August, reaching 200–400 burials weekly, culminating in a large pit finished 4 September and filled by 20 September with 1,114 bodies.
The story of those three men, if the reader will be content to have me give it in their own persons, without taking upon me to either vouch the particulars or answer for any mistakes, I shall give as distinctly as I can, believing the history will be a very good pattern for any poor man to follow, in case the like public desolation should happen here; and if there may be no such oc…
Gibbon notes that Ravenna served as government seat for Italy, describes its features using classical sources, and connects later legal codification dates to Ravenna and Constantinople.
occupied the throne and palace of the emperors; and till the middle of the eight century, Ravenna was considered as the seat of government, and the capital of Italy. 63 60 (return) [ This account of Ravenna is drawn from Strabo, (l. v. p. 327,) Pliny, (iii. 20,) Stephen of Byzantium, (sub voce, p. 651, edit. Berkel,) Claudian, (in vi. Cons. Honor. 494, &c.,) Sidonius Apollinaris, (l. i. epist. 5, 8…
Strabo describes the lake Moeris and its irrigation canal with locks, then details Egypt’s Labyrinth near the canal, its tomb and the ritual-style arrangement of the nomes.
lake, but in addition, on both mouths of the canal are placed locks, by which the engineers store up and distribute the water which enters or issues from the canal. We have here also the Labyrinth, a work equal to the Pyramids, and adjoining to it the tomb of the king who constructed the Labyrinth.[865] After proceeding beyond the first entrance of the canal about 30 or 40 stadia, there is a table-shaped plain, with…
Lyell describes Burnet’s 1690 Sacred Theory of the Earth and Whiston’s 1696 New Theory of the Earth, both treating Creation, Deluge, and Conflagration as natural philosophy supported by scripture, including specific debates over Paradise’s location and comet-caused deluge.
so far as to say, that Woodward "must have invented the phenomena for the sake of confirming his bold and strange hypothesis"[67]--a strong expression from the pen of a contemporary. *Burnet, 1690.*--At the same time Burnet published his "Theory of the Earth."[68] The title is most characteristic of the age,--"The Sacred Theory of the Earth; containing an Account of the Original of the Earth, and of all the general …
Lyell discusses Italian geologists such as Vallisneri who challenged Burnet, Whiston, and Woodward, emphasized marine strata and dislocations in Italy, and opposed explanations that used the Noah flood to interpret springs.
to the same effect; while Holbach, in 1753, after considering the various attempts to refer all the ancient formations to the flood of Noah, exposed the inadequacy of this cause. *Italian Geologists--Vallisneri.*--I return with pleasure to the geologists of Italy, who preceded, as has been already shown, the naturalists of other countries in their investigations into the ancient history of the earth, and who still m…
Lyell describes Lazzaro Moro (1740) explaining Italian marine deposits by earthquakes using Strabo and Pliny, illustrated by a new island rising in the Santorin Gulf in 1707, then adapting the account to Mosaic creation.
Brenta and other districts were not without value, undertook to vindicate the truth of the deluge, as also to prove that Italy had been peopled by the descendants of Japhet.[74] *Moro*, 1740.--Lazzaro Moro, in his work (published in 1740) "On the Marine Bodies which are found in the Mountains,"[75] attempted to apply the theory of earthquakes, as expounded by Strabo, Pliny, and other ancient authors, with whom he wa…
Lyell critiques Moro’s attempt to derive all stratified rocks from volcanic ejections, then reviews Marsilli’s and Donati’s Adriatic soundings showing structured marine deposits and living marine communities.
of which a great portion did actually exist in the Mediterranean; whereas the English collectors could obtain no recent species from such of their own strata as were then explored. The weakest point in Moro's system consisted in deriving *all* the stratified rocks from volcanic ejections; an absurdity which his opponents took care to expose, especially Vito Amici.[80] Moro seems to have been misled by his anxious de…
Lyell summarizes Buffon’s 1749 theory of an oceanic origin of mountains, then reports church action via the Sorbonne forcing Buffon to recant views inconsistent with Moses, while Lyell affirms secondary causes.
had shown that the organic remains in the tertiary marls of the Siennese territory were grouped in families, in a manner precisely similar to that above alluded to by Donati. *Buffon*, 1749.--Buffon first made known his theoretical views concerning the former changes of the earth, in his Natural History, published in 1749. He adopted the theory of an original volcanic nucleus, together with the universal ocean of Le…
Lyell describes Targioni’s Tuscan geology (1751–1754) emphasizing river excavation and lake-barrier breaches, Lehman’s mountain classification by revolutions and Noah’s deluge, and Gesner’s fossil-based reasoning about retreating seas.
above the level of the sea will not endure forever, is an opinion which gains ground daily, in proportion as we enlarge our experience of the changes now in progress. *Targioni*, 1751.--Targioni, in his voluminous "Travels in Tuscany, 1751 and 1754," labored to fill up the sketch of the geology of that region left by Steno sixty years before. Notwithstanding a want of arrangement and condensation in his memoirs, the…
Lyell continues with Arduino’s tripartite rock distinctions and submarine volcanism in Padua-Vicenza-Verona, then Michell’s 1760 earthquake theory prompted by Lisbon 1755, and further debate over deluge explanations and stratigraphic ages.
for the retreat of the primeval ocean: his essay displays much erudition; and the opinions of preceding writers of Italy, Germany, and England, are commented upon with fairness and discrimination. *Arduino*, 1759.--In the year following, Arduino,[85] in his memoirs on the mountains of Padua, Vicenza, and Verona, deduced, from original observations, the distinction of rocks into primary, secondary, and tertiary, and …
Lyell explains how Werner’s lack of travel and his overbearing authority led students to force “universal formations” onto the globe, then lists specific misinterpretations near Freyberg and the later independent work of William Smith and others.
the rank of a great university; and men already distinguished in science studied the German language, and came from the most distant countries to hear the great oracle of geology.[97] Werner had a great antipathy to the mechanical labor of writing, and, with the exception of a valuable treatise on metalliferous veins, he could never be persuaded to pen more than a few brief memoirs, and those containing no developme…
Lyell contrasts Werner’s Neptunist basalt theory with earlier and later evidence for igneous origins, recounting named scientists’ findings across Europe and arguing that Werner’s “retrograde” doctrine revived incorrect explanations.
at the same time, and independently, made the basis of an arrangement of the British strata by our countryman, William Smith, to whose work I shall refer in the sequel. *Controversy between the Vulcanists and Neptunists.*--In regard to basalt and other igneous rocks, Werner's theory was original, but it was also extremely erroneous. The basalts of Saxony and Hesse, to which his observations were chiefly confined, co…
Lyell critiques Hutton and Playfair for incomplete explanations of valleys and alluvium, compares Hutton’s need for alternating disturbance and repose with Generelli’s synchronized elevation, and argues that disruption may shift across the whole Earth over time.
such infinite extent. Worlds are seen beyond worlds immeasurably distant from each other, and, beyond them all, innumerable other systems are faintly traced on the confines of the visible universe. The characteristic feature of the Huttonian theory was, as before hinted, the exclusion of all causes not supposed to belong to the present order of nature. But Hutton had made no step beyond Hooke, Moro, and Raspe, in po…
Lyell praises William Smith for his 1790 “Tabular View” and 1815 geological map of England, noting fossil-based stratigraphic order, and then describes a turn toward neutrality and observation by later geologists.
that he was aware that the order of succession of different groups was never inverted; and that they might be identified at very distant points by their peculiar organized fossils. From the time of the appearance of the "Tabular View," the author labored to construct a geological map of the whole of England; and with the greatest disinterestedness of mind, communicated the results of his investigations to all who de…
Lyell adds that contact between geological layers from vastly different times can hide the chronological gaps, so without intermediates the imagination invents sudden revolutions, like a magical transfer from arctic to tropics.
and numerous other examples might be found of popular geological theories, which require us to imagine that a long succession of events happened in a brief and almost momentary period. Another liability to error, very nearly allied to the former, arises from the frequent contact of geological monuments referring to very distant periods of time. We often behold, at one glance, the effects of causes which have acted a…
Lyell uses fossil shells from tertiary strata across Sicily, northern Italy, Paris, London, and Bordeaux to argue for a gradual successive refrigeration of climate.
have undertaken to vindicate the uniformity of the laws of nature, not by accounting for former fluctuations in climate, but by denying the value of the evidence in their favor.[126] *Proofs from fossil shells in tertiary strata.*--In Sicily, Calabria, and in the neighborhood of Naples, the fossil testacea of the most modern tertiary formations belong almost entirely to species now inhabiting the Mediterranean; but …
In addressing a supposed glacial epoch near the end of the tertiary, Lyell claims that earlier warm climates can still be inferred from preserved warm-tolerant mammal and shell assemblages.
oldest and the Sicilian the newest) has more than counterbalanced the influence which latitude would otherwise exert, and this phenomenon clearly points to a gradual and successive refrigeration of climate. *Siberian Mammoths.*--It will naturally be asked, whether some recent geological discoveries bringing evidence to light of a colder, or as it has been termed "glacial epoch," towards the close of the tertiary per…
He summarizes Pallas’s findings on Siberian mammoth bones occurring with marine remains, fossil wood, and black coal, and notes a preserved rhinoceros carcass from Wiljuiskoi with warm clothing-like fur.
before the time of Pallas, that wherever any of the great rivers overflowed and cut out fresh channels during floods, more fossil remains of the same kind were invariably disclosed. As to the position of the bones, Pallas found them in some places imbedded together with marine remains; in others, simply with fossil wood, or lignite, such as, he says, might have been derived from carbonized peat. On the banks of the …
He proposes migration and changing geography as explanations for ice-preserved mammoth remains, citing upheaval along the Arctic Sea and river flooding that can transport carcasses northward and bury them in frozen deposits.
a greater degree of winter's cold may, even more than a general diminution of the mean annual temperature, have finally contributed to the extermination of the mammoth and its contemporaries. On referring to the map (p. 79), the reader will see how all the great rivers of Siberia flow at present from south to north, from temperate to arctic regions, and they are all liable, like the Mackenzie, in North America, to r…
Lyell contrasts secondary and tertiary formations as mostly marine versus mixed lacustrine/freshwater/marine, argues Europe and North America gained much new land since early tertiary times, and illustrates uplift with Apennines and Alps unconformities.
no less remarkable in organic life, scarcely any *species* being common both to the secondary and tertiary rocks, and the fossils of the latter affording evidence of a different climate. On the other hand, when we compare the tertiary formations of successive ages, we trace a gradual approximation in the imbedded fossils, from an assemblage in which extinct species predominate, to one where the species agree for the…
He introduces Plate I as a synoptic map of how much sea was converted into land across Europe since the start of older or Eocene tertiary deposition, using marine fossils, drift evidence, and raised shells to support submergence.
land and water in the same places, changes of which no account is taken in the map, and respecting the amount of which little accurate information can ever be obtained. I have extended the sea in some instances beyond the limits of the land now covered by tertiary formations, and marine drift, because other geological data have been obtained for inferring the submergence of these tracts after the deposition of the E…
Lyell explains further map construction and cautions that maps cannot restore a single epoch because land-to-sea conversions are harder to determine, then concludes climate changes tracked revolutions in sea/land extent and mountain height across the northern hemisphere.
left blank, together with all the space that cannot be demonstrated to have been part of the sea at some time or other, since the commencement of the Eocene epoch. In compiling this map, which has been entirely recast since the first edition, I have availed myself of the latest geological maps of the British isles, and north of Europe; also of those published by the government surveyors of France, MM. de Beaumont an…
Turning to the Tertiary, Lyell explains that changing northern-hemisphere geography (lakes, seas, near-shore deposits) makes land-animal fossils rarer than expected, citing London clay, calcaire grossier, and later crags in England.
accumulated. There were also formations in progress, in shallow seas not far from shore, such as are indicated by portions of the *Faluns* of the Loire, and the English *Crag*. The proximity, therefore, of large tracts of dry land to the seas and lakes then existing, may, in a great measure, explain why the remains of land animals, so rare in the older strata, are not uncommon in these more modern deposits. Yet even…
Lyell argues that cavern deposits help explain why newer Pleiocene mammals are better known, and he discusses discoveries of quadrumana and cetacea, stressing that fossil records are incomplete and biased by chance.
bodies of which may have been washed down into the sea by rivers draining land, of which the contiguity is indicated by the occasional presence of terrestrial and freshwater shells. Our acquaintance with the newer Pleiocene mammalia in Europe, South America, and Australia, is derived chiefly from cavern deposits, a fact which we ought never to forget if we desire to appreciate the superior facilities we enjoy for st…
In Chapter X, Lyell challenges claims that ancient aqueous forces were vastly stronger, tracing how rapid-flood views evolved into acceptance of slow deposition and limited denudation based on the balance between erosion and sediment.
SUPPOSED INTENSITY OF AQUEOUS FORCES AT REMOTE PERIODS. Intensity of aqueous causes--Slow accumulation of strata proved by fossils--Rate of denudation can only keep pace with deposition--Erratics, and effects of ice--Deluges, and the causes to which they are referred--Supposed universality of ancient deposits. *Intensity of aqueous causes.*--The great problem considered in the preceding chapters, namely…
Lyell discusses erratic boulders and argues deluges and ordinary rivers cannot explain them, instead proposing transportation by ice (with running water) and gradual sea-bed uplift converting sea to land.
own agency; but the amount of reproduction in the form of sedimentary strata must always afford a true measure of the minimum of denudation which the earth's surface has undergone. *Erratics.*--The next phenomenon to which the advocates of the excessive power of running water in times past have appealed, is the enormous size of the blocks called *erratic*, which lie scattered over the northern parts of Europe and No…
Lyell rejects the supposed universality of ancient deposits by arguing that sediment types can recur and spread widely without indicating the same age, then gives examples where “red marl and sandstone” span multiple epochs across continents.
it is most probable that the submergence of the whole region would not be accomplished simultaneously, but by a series of minor floods, the sinking of the barrier being gradual.[237] *Supposed universality of ancient deposits.*--The next fallacy which has helped to perpetuate the doctrine that the operations of water were on a different and grander scale in ancient times, is founded on the indefinite areas over whic…
Lyell explains how misleading geological naming (e.g., Chalk, Coal, Green Sand) can wrongly suggest rocks of certain ages are widely uniform, and how unequal exposure of newer versus older strata hides true geographic extent.
of England, occurs as a member of the Carboniferous group, and in the United States near the Falls of Niagara, a similar formation constitutes a subdivision of the Silurian series.[238] Nor was the nomenclature commonly adopted in geology without its influence in perpetuating the erroneous doctrine of universal formations. Such names, for example, as Chalk, Green Sand, Oolite, Red Marl, Coal, and others, were given …
Lyell argues against the claim that older eras had more uniformly distributed fossil species by comparing North American and European fossils, concluding that Silurian to Tertiary life was as geographically diverse as today.
not because of any original inferiority in their extent, but because there has not been sufficient time since their origin for the development of a great series of elevatory movements. In regard, however, to one of the most important characteristics of sedimentary rocks, their organic remains, many naturalists of high authority have maintained that the same species of fossils are more uniformly distributed through f…
In discussing supposed former volcanic intensity, Lyell claims igneous rocks formed throughout the geological record in repeated eruptions and injections, supporting gradual accumulation of effects rather than rare, violent, short episodes.
ON THE SUPPOSED FORMER INTENSITY OF THE IGNEOUS FORCES. Volcanic action at successive geological periods--Plutonic rocks of different ages--Gradual development of subterranean movements--Faults--Doctrine of the sudden upheaval of parallel mountain-chains--Objections to the proof of the suddenness of the upheaval, and the contemporaneousness of parallel chains--Trains of active volcanoes not paral…
Lyell argues that even if plutonic rocks might appear to have formed at once, their cooling and crystallization could have taken immense time, analogously warning against assuming brief formation for granites.
when the subterranean heat shall be exhausted. That lakes of lava are continuous for hundreds of miles beneath the Chilian Andes, seems established by observations made in the year 1835.[241] Now, wherever the fluid contents of such reservoirs are poured out successively from craters in the open air, or at the bottom of the sea, the matter so ejected may afford evidence by its arrangement of having originated at dif…
Lyell defends gradualist explanations for large faults and rejects proofs for single-catastrophe movement by noting irregular striae, renewed sliding, and slow uplift/subsidence cases like Sweden and Greenland.
of the two volcanic or subterranean processes has gone on gradually, draws with it the conclusion that the effects of the other have been elaborated by successive and gradual efforts. *Faults.*--The same reasoning is applicable to great *faults*, or those striking instances of the upthrow or downthrow of large masses of rock, which have been thought by some to imply tremendous catastrophes wholly foreign to the ordi…
Lyell summarizes Elie de Beaumont’s 1833/1852 theory that short paroxysmal revolutions suddenly raised many parallel mountain-chains, linked to changes in sedimentary formations and even global planetary cooling, while proposing a deluge tradition.
"2dly. At each of these periods of violence or 'revolution,' in the state of the earth's surface, a great number of mountain-chains have been formed suddenly. "3dly. The chains thrown up by a particular revolution have one uniform direction, being parallel to each other within a few degrees of the compass, even when situated in remote regions; whilst the chains thrown up at different periods have, for the most part,…
Using the Pyrenees, Lyell argues that even if chalk and early tertiary ages are known, uplift timing may span Cretaceous into Tertiary, and the fossil-bearing species may persist after mountains begin rising.
and the possible length of some of the intervals is so vast, that to affirm that all the chains raised in such intervals were *contemporaneous* is an abuse of language. In order to illustrate this argument, I shall select the Pyrenees as an example. Originally M. E. de Beaumont spoke of this range of mountains as having been uplifted suddenly (*a un seul jet*), but he has since conceded that in this chain, in spite …
Lyell notes that his earlier edition (1833) contested de Beaumont, but later reclassifications complicate Pyrenees timing; he cites the Longmynds in Shropshire, where “ante-Silurian” dates were shown to be post-Silurian.
geological facts, therefore, adduced by the author were true and unquestionable, yet the conclusion that certain chains were or were not simultaneously upraised is by no means a legitimate consequence. In the third volume of my first edition of the Principles, which appeared in April, 1833, I controverted the views of M. de Beaumont, then just published, in the same terms as I have now restated them. At that time I …
Lyell critiques M. E. de Beaumont’s model of repeated uplift episodes in terms of parallel ridges in the Andes and Cordilleras, arguing it weakens using parallelism as a chronological test.
which to the eye appears smooth." A "centripetal force" affecting the whole planet as it cools, seems a mightier cause than is required to produce wrinkles of such insignificant size. In pursuing his investigations, M. E. de Beaumont has of late greatly multiplied the number of successive periods of instantaneous upheaval, admitting at the same time that occasionally new lines of upthrow have taken the direction of …
He explains slow continental uplift and sinking by comparing the Andes and Pampas using Darwin’s traverses, then addresses how lateral pressure could fold strata like the Andes and Alps.
affords the only power by which we can conceive so many deep valleys and wide spaces to have been denuded as those which are unquestionably the effects of running water. But perhaps it may be said that there is no analogy between the slow upheaval of broad plains or table-lands, and the manner in which we must presume all mountain-chains, with their inclined strata, to have originated. It seems, however, that the An…
Lyell argues that strata would fold under repeated sideway thrust over long times, citing volcanic uplifts in Chile in 1822 and 1835 and recurring earthquakes along zones.
and volume of the Andes must be insignificant in comparison, even if we indulge the most moderate conjectures as to the thickness of the earth's crust above the volcanic foci. To assume that any set of strata with which we are acquainted are made up of such cohesive and unyielding materials, as to be able to resist a power of such stupendous energy, if its direction, instead of being vertical, happened to be oblique…
He considers lateral pressure causes, including thermal expansion and subsidence, while arguing geological change is generally gradual, citing mine creeps as an analogue to curved subsidence structures.
numerous monuments of the successive ejection and injection of melted matter in ancient geological epochs, and the fissures formed in distinct ages, and often widened and filled at different eras. Among the causes of lateral pressure, the expansion by heat of large masses of solid stone intervening between others which have a different degree of expansibility, or which happen not to have their temperature raised at …
In conclusion, Lyell says sudden upthrow/downthrow theories use too much subterranean force and neglect wave and current erosion, and he reframes the debate as comparing mechanical work over time.
greater propriety be brought forward as an argument in favor of the successive application of some irresistible but moderated force, such as that which can elevate or depress a continent. In conclusion, I may observe that one of the soundest objections to the theory of the sudden upthrow or downthrow of mountain-chains is this, that it provides us with too much force of one kind, namely, that of subterranean movemen…
Lyell introduces differences in texture between older and newer rocks, arguing that older fossiliferous strata are often more compact because they consolidated over time, not because their causes were wholly different.
DIFFERENCE IN TEXTURE OF THE OLDER AND NEWER ROCKS. Consolidation of fossiliferous strata--Some deposits originally solid--Transition and slaty texture--Crystalline character of Plutonic and Metamorphic rocks--Theory of their origin--Essentially subterranean--No proofs that they were produced more abundantly at remote periods. Another argument in favor of the dissimilarity of the causes operating at…
He explains Werner’s ‘transition’ rocks and revises the idea of a single intermediate period, arguing similar mineral texture can arise in different ages from later modification.
they will be unlike, just as the wood in the older trees of a forest usually differs in texture and hardness from that of younger individuals of the same species. *Transition texture*.--In the original classification, of Werner, the highly crystalline rocks, such as granite and gneiss, which contain no organic remains, were called primary, and the fossiliferous strata secondary, while to another class of an age inte…
Lyell presents the ‘metamorphic theory’ that fossiliferous formations can be altered into gneiss, mica-schist, and marble by subterranean heat and ‘Plutonic’ action under pressure.
be inclosed in them, the high temperature of the fluid and the quantity of mineral matter which it held in solution, rendering it unfit for the support of organic beings. It would be inconsistent with the plan of this work to enter here into a detailed account of what I have elsewhere termed the _metamorphic theory_;[256] but I may state that it is now demonstrable in some countries that fossiliferous formations, so…
He argues against claims that granite and gneiss were produced mainly in the primeval age, using ‘hypogene’ subterranean formation to explain why tertiary and newer crystalline rocks are rarely visible.
the quantity produced has been always on the decrease, until it became very inconsiderable in the Oolitic and Cretaceous periods, and quite evanescent before the commencement of the tertiary epoch. Now the justness of these views depends almost entirely on the question whether granite, gneiss, and other rocks of the same order ever originated at the surface, or whether, according to the opinions above adopted, they …
Lyell argues that the fossil record looks broken—species change abruptly and strata tilt differently—so some think catastrophes occurred, but he promises to explain these gaps without sudden revolutions through continuous processes.
UNIFORMITY IN THE SERIES OF PAST CHANGES IN THE ANIMATE AND INANIMATE WORLD. Supposed alternate periods of repose and disorder--Observed facts in which this doctrine has originated--These may be explained by supposing a uniform and uninterrupted series of changes--Threefold consideration of this subject; first, in reference to the living creation, extinction of species, and origin of new animals and …
He proposes a uniform, uninterrupted series of gradual changes to reproduce apparent stratigraphic discontinuities, and outlines a three-part discussion: living change, crustal movements, and rules of sediment deposition.
rendered still more so by time--that a great part of what remains is inaccessible to man, and even of that fraction which is accessible, nine-tenths are to this day unexplored. _How the facts may be explained by assuming a uniform series of changes._--The readiest way, perhaps, of persuading the reader that we may dispense with great and sudden revolutions in the geological order of events, is by showing him how a r…
He argues that even in glacial deposits and raised beaches, late-Holocene-like species appear without any human evidence, and he uses Scandinavia raised beaches and loess with Eifel ash to show long prehuman intervals.
the modern tertiary fauna has perished, and hence we may conclude that the cause of their destruction has not been a violent and universal catastrophe from which none could escape."[257] Had we discovered evidence that man had come into the earth at a period as early as that when a large number of the fossil quadrupeds now living, and almost all the recent species of land, freshwater, and marine shells were in exist…
Lyell adds further examples: in Sicily many fossil shells match Mediterranean living species, and the limestone cap was quarried for ancient Girgenti and Syracuse temples, supporting that major geological formation predates humans.
after the testacea now living inhabited the land and rivers of Europe, and the whole terminated without any signs of the coming of man into that part of the globe. To cite a still more remarkable example, we observe in Sicily a lofty table-land and hills, sometimes rising to the height of 3000 feet, capped with a limestone, in which from 70 to 85 per cent. of the fossil testacea are specifically identical with those…
He shifts to crustal dynamics: some regions are earthquake-prone while others rise or subside slowly (e.g., Sweden, Greenland), and he infers repeated movements from unconformable strata rather than global catastrophe.
upheaval is proved by the occurrence in inland spots, several hundred feet high, of deposits filled with fossil shells of species now living either in the ocean or the Baltic. To detect proofs of slow and gradual subsidence must in general be more difficult; but the theory which accounts for the form of circular coral reefs and lagoon islands, and which will be explained in the last chapter of the third book, will s…
Lyell illustrates uniform, local disturbances through unconformities—Silurian vertical near Wales and Shropshire overlaid by horizontal carboniferous rocks, plus comparisons in Sweden, Russia, Yorkshire, the Pyrenees, and Somerset—showing changes without universal destruction.
sandstone supports on its curved and inclined beds the horizontal Chalk. The Chalk again is vertical on the flanks of the Pyrenees, and the tertiary strata repose unconformably upon it. *Consistency of local disturbances with general uniformity.*--As almost every country supplies illustrations of the same phenomena, they who advocate the doctrine of alternate periods of disorder and repose may appeal to the facts ab…
He explains sedimentary deposition: no new strata accumulate on stable dry land, while seas and lakes receive annual sediments; deposition areas shift with currents and river deltas, and large uplift or subsidence can resume or stop deposition abruptly.
fossil shell or bone will be dissolved and removed, particle after particle, and thus entirely effaced, unless petrifaction or the substitution of mineral for organic matter happen to take place. That there has been land as well as sea at all former geological periods, we know from the fact, that fossil trees and terrestrial plants are imbedded in rocks of every age. Occasionally lacustrine and fluviatile shells, in…
Lyell explains that rivers from different source rocks carry different colored sediments, and argues that shifting physical geography and marine currents will similarly change deposits, enabling distinct fossil assemblages across intervals.
have been formed by subsidence; and other fluctuations may have occurred, by which the materials brought down from thence by rivers to the sea have acquired a distinct mineral character. It is well known that the stream of the Mississippi is charged with sediment of a different color from that of the Arkansas and Red Rivers, which are tinged with red mud, derived from rocks of porphyry in "the far west." The waters …
He notes Darwin’s conclusion that stationary or rising sea levels hinder thick shelly deposits, and he uses European and North American Miocene examples and fossil gaps to argue subsidence patterns control preservation.
us to trace the signs of a gradual change in the living creation, than a fragment of Chinese history will fill up a blank in the political annals of Europe. The absence of any deposits of importance containing recent shells in Chili, or anywhere on the western coast of South America, naturally led Mr. Darwin to the conclusion that "where the bed of the sea is either stationary or rising, circumstances are far less f…
Lyell describes how some gaps in the fossil record can be bridged by intervening formations in Germany and Devonian/Old Red Sandstone links, while other discontinuities may persist in the sedimentary series.
Cretaceous and Eocene periods in Europe. Still we must expect, for reasons before stated, that some such chasms will forever continue to occur in some parts of our sedimentary series. _Consistency of the theory of gradual change with the existence of great breaks in the series._--To return to the general argument pursued in this chapter, it is assumed, for reasons above explained, that a slow change of species is in…
Lyell uses the example of buried cities at Vesuvius to argue that discontinuities in the record do not imply sudden language or species replacement, since burial timing may be unrelated to underlying biological change.
abrupt passage from a Greek to a Roman, and from a Roman to an Italian city, would afford proof of fluctuations no less sudden in the language of the people. So, in Geology, if we could assume that it is part of the plan of Nature to preserve, in every region of the globe, an unbroken series of monuments to commemorate the vicissitudes of the organic creation, we might infer the sudden extirpation of species, and th…
Lyell continues describing rain shadow effects across Bhutan Himalaya and Sikkim, contrasts wet and rainless tropical zones like Peru and North Africa, and argues rainfall varies across geological periods, shaping valley formation and denudation.
the flooded streams. So great is the superficial waste (or *denudation*), that what would otherwise be a rich and luxuriantly wooded region, is converted into a wild and barren moorland. After the current of warm air has been thus drained of a large portion of its moisture, it still continues its northerly course to the opposite flank of the Khasia range, only 20 miles farther north, and here the fall of rain is red…
Lyell reports a field observation from 1842 in Nova Scotia’s Bay of Fundy mud-flats where successive tides preserve distinct rain-drop impressions, enabling casts of recent rain-prints to be found in sediment layers.
the relative position, at the time being, of the plains, hills, and the ocean, conditions all of which are liable in the course of ages to undergo a complete revolution. *Recent rain-prints.*--When examining, in 1842, the extensive mud-flats of Nova Scotia, which are exposed at low tide on the borders of the Bay of Fundy, I observed not only the foot-prints of birds which had recently passed over the mud, but also v…
Lyell links mountain-driven condensation to the idea of higher regions as reservoirs that feed lower valleys, then adds physical explanations—frost action, ice expansion, attrition by sand and pebbles—and presents a case of newly formed valleys in Georgia.
spot. It occurs three miles and a half due west of Milledgeville, the capital of Georgia, and is situated on the farm of Pomona, on the direct road to Macon.[268] Twenty years ago, before the land was cleared, it had no existence; but when the trees of the forest were cut down, cracks three feet deep were caused by the sun's heat in the clay; and, during the rains, a sudden rush of water through the principal crack …
He discusses the Mississippi delta’s age and structure: its estimated area and sediment types, a gentle slope from the Balize up-river, and he argues that historical coastal advance of the delta has been slow.
inequality derived from this source, but we might certainly have expected to find more broken ground between the opposite bluffs, had local upthrows of alluvial strata been of repeated occurrence. *Antiquity of the delta.*--The vast size of the alluvial plain both above and below the head of the delta, or the branching off of the uppermost arm of the Atchafalaya, has been already alluded to. Its superficial dimensio…
Lyell uses Darby’s section of strata in the Atchafalaya to argue for alternating occupation by Mississippi and Red River waters, then generalizes about alternating deposits between converging deltas.
when the waters of the river are low, enter into each opening, and scour them out, destroying the banks of mud and the sand-bars newly formed during the flood season. An observation of Darby, in regard to the strata composing part of this delta, deserves attention. In the steep banks of the Atchafalaya, before alluded to, the following section, he says, is observable at low water:--first an upper stratum, consisting…