Charles Lyell

Lyell's Travels in North America Charles Lyell

Sir Charles Lyell, a noted English geologist, was born at Kin-nordy, Forfarshire, Scotland, November 14, 1797, and died in London, February 22, 1875. His boyhood home in the New Forest gave him large opportunities for the cultivation of the natural sciences, toward which he had a strong inclination He was a student in Exeter College, Oxford, and was graduated in 1821- He immediately began the study of law, entering Lincoln's Inn, and in 1825 was called to the bar. But his favorite science drew him away from the legal profession, and he became a geologist, a friend and companion of his former Oxford professor of geology, Dr. Buckland, In 1819 he was elected a member of the Lmnean and Geological Societies; and in 1822 he read his first paper, "On the Marls of Forfarshire," before the latter society. In 1823 he went to France with introductions to Cuvier, Humboldt and other men of science; and in 1824 he made a geological tour in Scotland in company with Dr, Buckland. In 1826 he was elected fellow of the Royal Society, from which in later years he received its highest honors, the Copley and the Royal Medals...