Charles Lyell and Modern Geology

CHAPTER X.

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN

Though many men on reaching their sixty-third year are content to rest upon their oars and not to attempt new ventures, Lyell had plunged into a question which was arousing almost as much excitement as the origin of species – namely, the antiquity of man. It was a question, indeed, which for a long time must have been before his mind – witness his remarks on Dr. Schmerling's work in the caves near Liége; but it had assumed a special significance owing to the famous discovery of flint implements in the valley of the Somme.133 The whole subject also would have a special interest for Lyell, because he had made Tertiary deposits his special field in stratigraphy, and had worked at this subject downwards, comparing extinct with living forms, so that he had seen more than others of the borderland which blends by an insensible transition the province of the geologist with that of the archæologist. Probably also the thought which he had been giving to the question of the origin of species would bring into no less vivid prominence that of the age and origin of the human race. Be this as it may, he undertook a task comparatively novel, and for the next three years was fully occupied in the preparation of his third great book, "The Antiquity of Man." Travel was necessary for this purpose also; but as the journeys were less lengthy than those already described, and led him for the most part over old ground, it is needless to enter into details. He visited the gravels of the Somme Valley and the caves on the Meuse, besides other parts of Northern France and Belgium,134 the gravel pits near Bedford, and various localities in England, examining into the evidence for himself, and paying particular attention, not only to the question of man's antiquity, but also to the supposed return of a warmer climate than now prevails after the era of glacial cold. The book was published early in 1863. Naturally its conclusions were startling to many and were vigourously denounced by some; but it was a great success, for it ran through three editions in the course of the year. A fourth and enlarged edition was published in 1873.

The book may seem, from the literary critic's point of view, rather composite in character, and this objection was made in a good-natured form by a writer in the Saturday Review,135 who called it "a trilogy on the antiquity of man, ice, and Darwin." That, however, is but a slight blemish, if blemish it be, and it was readily pardoned, because of the general interest of the book, the clearness of its style, and the lucidity of its reasoning.

In accordance with his usual plan of work – proceeding tentatively from the known to the unknown – Lyell begins with times nearest to the present era and facts of which the interpretation is least open to dispute. He conducts his reader at the outset to the peat mosses of Denmark, where weapons of iron, bronze, and stone lie in a kind of stratified order; and to those mounds of shells, the refuse heaps of a rude people, which are found on the Baltic shore. Next he places him on the site of the pile-built villages which once fringed the shores of Swiss and Italian lakes. Here weapons of iron, of bronze, and of stone are hidden in peat or scattered on the lake-bed. But these log-built settlements, such as those which Herodotus described at Lake Prasias in Roumelia, are not the only remnants of an almost prehistoric people, for nearer home we find analogous constructions in the crannoges of Ireland – islets partly artificial, built of timber and stone. Lyell then passes on from Europe to the valleys of the Nile and Mississippi, and so to the "carses" of Scotland. In the last case canoes buried in the alluvial deposits, as in the lowland by the Clyde, indicate that some physical changes, slight though they may be, have occurred since the coming of man. But none of these researches lead us back into a very remote past; they keep us still lingering, as it were, on the threshold of history. The weapons which have been described, even if made of stone, exhibit a considerable amount of mechanical skill, for many of them are fashioned and polished with much care, while they are associated with the remains of creatures which are still living at no great distance, if not in the immediate vicinity. Accordingly he conducts his reader, in the next place, to the localities where ruder weapons only have been found, fashioned by chipping, and never polished – namely, to the caves of Belgium and of Britain, of Central and of Southern France, and to the gravel beds in the valleys of the Somme and the Seine, of the Ouse and other rivers of Eastern and Southern England. These furnish abundant evidence that man was contemporary with several extinct animals, such as the mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros, or with others which now inhabit only arctic regions, such as the reindeer and the musksheep, and that the valleys since then have been deepened and altered in contour. This evidence, stratigraphical as well as palæontological, proves that important changes have occurred since man first appeared, not only in climate, but also in physical geography.

The Glacial Epoch is the subject of the second part of the book. Its pages contain an admirable sketch of the deposits assigned to that age in Eastern England, Scandinavia, the Alps, and North America, with special descriptions of the loess of Northern Europe, the drifts of the Danish island of Möen, so like those near Cromer, and the parallel roads of Glenroy, which Lyell now supposes to have been formed in a manner similar to that of the little terrace by the Märjalen See.

The third part deals with "the origin of species as bearing on man's place in Nature." It is a recantation of the views which he had formerly maintained. In all his earlier writings, including the ninth edition of the "Principles," he had expressed himself dissatisfied with the hypothesis of the transmutation of species, and had accepted, though cautiously and not without allowing for considerable power of variation, that of specific centres of creation. Now, after a full review of the question, he gives his reasons for abandoning his earlier opinions and adopting in the main those advocated by Darwin and Wallace. Nevertheless, through frankly avowing his change of view, he advances cautiously and tentatively, like a man over treacherous ice – so cautiously, indeed, that Darwin is not wholly satisfied with his convert, and chides him good-humouredly for his slow progress and over-much hesitation. But this very hesitation was as real as the conversion: the one was the outcome of Lyell's thoroughly judicial habit of mind, the other was a proof, perhaps the strongest that could be given, of that mind's freshness, vigour, and candour. The book ends with a chapter on "man's place in Nature." On this burning question the author speaks with great caution, but comes to the conclusion that man, so far as his bodily frame is concerned, cannot claim exception from the law which governs the rest of the animal kingdom and he ends136 with a few words on the theological aspect of the question: "It may be said that, so far from having a materialistic tendency, the supposed introduction into the earth, at successive geological periods, of life – sensation – instinct – the intelligence of the higher mammalia bordering on reason – and, lastly, the improvable reason of man himself, presents us with a picture of the ever-increasing dominion of mind over matter."

CHAPTER XI.

THE EVENING OF LIFE

The second and third editions of the "Antiquity of Man" were not mere reprints, since new materials were constantly coming in and researches were continued; for during the summer of 1863 Sir Charles was rambling about Wales, visiting the caves of Gower in Pembrokeshire, and of Cefn in Denbighshire, the peats of Anglesea, and the boulder clay and shell-bearing sands near the top of Moel Tryfaen. He also went over to Paris, apparently about this time, to inquire into the authenticity of specimens – bones with notches upon them – which were supposed to prove man contemporaneous with the Cromer Forest Beds of England, and therefore pre-glacial. Shorter journeys were to Osborne (by Royal command), to Suffolk, and to Kent.

While engaged on the above-named book, he had persistently refused more than one position of honour – such as a Trusteeship at the British Museum, to be a candidate for the representation of the University of London in Parliament, even an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh because he was too busy to undertake the journey. In 1861, also, he seems to have received a warning that he was beginning to grow old, for he became rather seriously unwell, and was ordered to Kissingen in Bavaria to take a course of the waters. But during the same period two acceptable honours were received – namely, the Corresponding Membership of the Institute of France, in 1862, and an order of Scientific Merit from the King of Prussia in the following year.

The years, as must be the case when life's evening shadows are lengthening, begin to be more definitely chequered with losses and with rewards. In his letters, references to the death of friends become frequent. In 1862 Mrs. Horner, Lady Lyell's mother, died, and in 1864 her father, Leonard Horner, with whom, even for some years before becoming his son-in-law, Lyell had been in constant friendly correspondence, passed away in his eightieth year. In the same year Lyell was raised to the rank of baronet, and also occupied the presidential chair at the meeting of the British Association at Bath.

His address deals principally with two topics – one local, thermal springs, especially those of Bath; the other general, the glacial epoch and its relation to the antiquity of man. He refers, however, in the concluding paragraph to the marked change which, within his memory, opinion had undergone, in regard to catastrophic changes and the origin of species, and to the discovery of the supposed fossil Eozoon Canadense in the crystalline Laurentian rocks of Canada. This singular structure appeared to him – as it did to Sir W. Logan, who had brought specimens for exhibition at the meeting – to be a fossil organism,137 and thus to indicate the existence of living creatures at a much earlier period than hitherto had been supposed. But in stating this opinion he checks himself characteristically with these words: "I will not venture on speculations respecting 'the signs of a beginning,' or 'the prospects of an end' of our terrestrial system – that wide ocean of scientific conjecture on which so many theorists before my time have suffered shipwreck."

The address contains more than one passage that is well worth quotation, but the following has so wide a bearing, and is so significant as to the effects of early influences, that it should not be forgotten: —

"When speculations on the long series of events which occurred in the Glacial and post-Glacial periods are indulged in, the imagination is apt to take alarm at the immensity of the time required to interpret the monuments of these ages, all referable to the era of existing species. In order to abridge the number of centuries which would otherwise be indispensable, a disposition is shown by many to magnify the rate of change in prehistoric times, by investing the causes which have modified the animate and inanimate world with extraordinary and excessive energy. It is related of a great Irish orator of our day, that when he was about to contribute somewhat parsimoniously towards a public charity, he was persuaded by a friend to make a more liberal donation. In doing so, he apologised for his first apparent want of generosity by saying that his early life had been a constant struggle with scanty means, and that 'they who are born to affluence cannot easily imagine how long a time it takes to get the chill of poverty out of one's bones.' In like manner, we of the living generation, when called upon to make grants of thousands of centuries in order to explain the events of what is called the modern period, shrink naturally at first from making what seems to be so lavish an expenditure of past time. Throughout our early education we have been accustomed to such strict economy in all that relates to the chronology of the earth and its inhabitants in remote ages, so fettered have we been by old traditional beliefs, that even when our reason is convinced and we are persuaded that we ought to make more liberal grants of time to the geologist, we feel how hard it is to get the chill of poverty out of our bones."138

A presidential address to the British Association is no light task; but, in addition to this, Lyell was now engaged upon a new edition of the "Elements (or Manual) of Geology," which for some time had been urgently demanded; the last edition also of the "Principles" – though 5,000 copies had been printed – was practically exhausted. The former work was cleared off before the end of the year, the book appearing in January, 1865, and the latter was at once taken vigorously in hand, as we see from a letter questioning Sir John Herschel about the earth-pillars on the Rittnerhorn, near Botzen, and on the influence which changes in the shape of the earth's orbit and the position of its axis would have upon climate – a view which had been advocated by Dr. Croll. Lyell, it will be remembered, had originally regarded geographical conditions as the only factors which modified climate, but he was evidently impressed by Croll's argument, and ready, if his mathematics were correct, to admit astronomical changes as an independent, though probably less potent, cause of variation.

The Christmas of 1864 and the following New Year were spent in Berlin, and in the summer of 1865 he had again recourse to Kissingen. Though he writes that the waters "did him neither harm nor good," he was at any rate well enough after the "cure" to undertake a rather lengthy tour with Lady Lyell and his nephew139 Leonard, in the course of which he examined for himself the wonderful earth-pillars near Botzen, and visited the Märjalen See, that pretty lake held up by the ice of the great Aletsch Glacier, in order to see whether it threw any light on the origin of the parallel roads of Glenroy. He was satisfied that it did, for he found there a large terrace "exactly on a level with the col which separates the valley" occupied by the lake from that of the Viesch glacier. On his return to England, he writes a long letter to Sir John Herschel, discussing the origin of these earth-pillars, and making inquiries as to the precise points from which his friend, more than forty years before, had made some elaborate drawings. The expedition, as well as the letter, to quote Lyell's own words, were pretty well for a man who was "battling with sixty-eight years." He complains, however, of little more than occasional attacks of lumbago, and a necessity for taking great care of himself; but his eyes were now more troublesome than they had been, and for the last year he had been driven to avail himself of the services of a secretary,140 with the result that he seemed to have acquired a new lease of his eyes, and to be able, for ordinary purposes, to use them almost as well as formerly.

After his return from the Continent Sir Charles was working hard at the new edition of the "Principles," which obviously gave him much trouble, for letters still remain which were written to Herschel on questions relating to climate and astronomy; to Hooker, Wallace, and Darwin on the transmutation of species, the distribution and migration of plants and animals, the effects of geographical changes, and even on such matters as the Triassic reptilia of Elgin and Warwickshire, Central India and the Cape. At last the first volume of the new and much-enlarged edition (tenth) was published in November, 1866, the second volume not appearing till 1868. Few men at that time of life could have accomplished such a piece of work, especially if they had been compelled, as Lyell was, to read with the eyes and write with the hands of others. But even now, in regard to field work, he was still able to see things for himself, and, though less vigorous than formerly, to undertake journeys of moderate length. In 1866, in company with his nephew Leonard, he examined the Glacial and late Tertiary deposits of the Suffolk coasts; looked once more at the sections of Jurassic rocks in the Isle of Portland and the neighbourhood of Weymouth, and doubtless speculated on the origin of the Chesil Bank and of the Fleet. One honour fell to him in this year, which, doubtless, only the accident of his long service on the Council had previously kept from him – namely, the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society.

In 1867 he was strong enough to visit the Paris Exhibition, after which he went to Forfarshire, and attended the meeting of the British Association at Dundee. In the following year he was present at the same gathering in Norwich, besides making various shorter journeys in England and spending September in Pembrokeshire with Lady Lyell and his brother's family,141 in whose company evidently he took much pleasure.

In the spring of 1868 he was again in the field, examining the splendid plant remains of Eocene age in the neighbourhood of Bournemouth and Poole, and the shallow-water deposits of the Purbeck group ripple-marked and sun-cracked, together with the traces of their ancient forests. Over these he became as enthusiastic as any young geologist. At this time also, apparently, he visited the Blackmore Museum142 at Salisbury, and himself found reindeer antlers in the neighbouring gravels at Fisherton. In the autumn they again stayed at Tenby with Colonel Lyell's family, when one of the latter was attacked by a serious illness. But Sir Charles was able to take his nephew Leonard to St. David's, and examine the magnificent sections of fossiliferous Cambrian rocks, under the guidance of Dr. H. Hicks, whose name is inseparably connected with the geology of this district.

Comparatively few records are preserved of the last six years of his life; still they are enough to show that his interest in science never flagged. The few letters which have been printed show no signs of declining mental strength. Though his bodily powers had become less vigorous, though his sight was weak, and his limbs were less firm than in the olden times, he was by no means ready to be laid altogether on the shelf. For instance, in the spring of 1869 he went back to the coast of Suffolk and Norfolk, to resume work which he had been unable to complete on his last visit.

Starting at Aldborough, where Pliocene deposits are still exposed, from the Coralline Crag up to the Chillesford group, they examined the coasts by Southwold and Kessingland to Lowestoft, seeing "a continuous section, for miles unbroken, of the deposits from the upper part of the Pliocene to the glacial drift." The Kessingland cliffs afforded good sections of the "Forest Bed," the deposit which on former occasions he had studied in the neighbourhood of Cromer. It was covered by several yards of stratified sand, and that by glacial drift, "with the usual 'boulders' of chalk, flint, lias, sandstone, and other sedimentaries, with crystalline rocks from more distant places." Passing on into Norfolk, they followed this "Forest Bed" and the overlying boulder clay, and they found in the latter, near Happisburgh, some fragments of sea-shells, and one perfect valve of Tellina solidula in a band of gravel, "like a fragment of an old sea-beach," intercalated in the glacial clay. As the origin of this clay has been, of late years, a subject of dispute, it may be interesting to quote Sir Charles's conclusion: – "I suppose, therefore, we must set it down as a marine formation; and underneath it, from Happisburgh to Cromer, comes the famous lignite bed and submarine forest, which must have sunk down to allow of the unquestionable glacial formation being everywhere superimposed."143

On revisiting Sherringham (a village about five miles along the coast to the west of Cromer), he found a striking instance of that "sea change" to which in his early days he had called attention. "Leonard and I" (he writes to Sir C. Bunbury) "have just returned from Sherringham, where I found that the splendid old Hythe pinnacle of chalk, in which the flints were vertical, between seventy and eighty feet high, the grandest erratic in the world, of which I gave a figure in the first edition of my "Principles," has totally disappeared. The sea has advanced on the lofty cliff so much in the last ten years, that it may well have carried away the whole pinnacle in the thirty years which have elapsed since our first visit."

Another letter, bearing date in the next month, to Darwin shows that in his seventy-second year his mind was fresh and keen as ever. It discusses an article written by Wallace in the Quarterly Review, and indicates the difference in regard to natural selection between Lyell's own standpoint and that of his correspondent. The following extract may serve to show the general tenor of the remarks: – "As I feel that progressive development in evolution cannot be entirely explained by natural selection, I rather hail Wallace's suggestion that there may be a Supreme Will and Power, which may not abdicate its functions of interference, but may guide the forces and laws of Nature." In another passage he refers, to a controversy which had been recently started by Professor (afterwards Sir A.) Ramsay, and over which geologists have been fighting ever since – viz. whether lake-basins are excavated by glaciers. The passage is worth quoting, for it puts the issue in a form which after a quarter of a century is virtually unchanged: —