Volume 1

Principles of geology, being an attempt to explain the former changes of the earth's surface, by reference to causes now in operation / By Charles Lyell, esq.

Lyell, Charles, Sir, 1797-1875.

Date:: 1830-1833

Credit: Principles of geology, being an attempt to explain the former changes of the earth's surface, by reference to causes now in operation / By Charles Lyell, esq. Source: Wellcome Collection.

67/544 (page 43)

$while a fourth affirms, that they were born and nourished within the rock in ancient caverns, into which salt water had been raised in the shape of vapour, by the action of subterranean heat. Moro pointed with great judgment to \he faults and dislo¬ cations of the strata described by Vallisneri, in the Alps and other chains, in conhrmation of his doctrine, that the continents had been heaved up by subterranean movements. He objected, on solid grounds, to the hypotheses of Burnet and of Wood¬ ward; yet he ventured so far to disregard the protest of Val¬ lisneri, as to undertake the adaptation of every part of his own system to the Mosaic account of the creation. On the third day, he said the globe was every where covered to the same depth by fresh water, and when it pleased the Supreme Being that the dry land should appear, volcanic explosions broke up the smooth and regular surface of the earth composed of pri¬ mary rocks. These rose in mountain masses above the waves, and allowed melted metals and salts to ascend through fissures. The sea gradually acquired its saltness from volcanic exhala¬ tions^ and, while it became more circumscribed in area, increased in depth. Sand and ashes ejected by volcanoes were regularly disposed along the bottom of the ocean and formed the secon¬ dary strata, which in their turn were lifted up by earthquakes. We shall not attempt to follow him in tracing the progress of the creation of vegetables, and animals on the other days of crea¬ tion ; but, upon the whole, we may remark that few of the old cosmological theories had been conceived with so little viola¬ tion of known analogies. The style of Moro was extremely prolix, and, like Hutton, who, at a later period, advanced many of the same views, he stood in need of an illustrator. The Scotch geologist was not more fortunate in the advocacy of Playfair, than was Moro in numbering amongst his admirers Cirillo Generelli, who, nine years afterwards, delivered at a sitting of Academicians at Cremona a spirited exposition of his theory. This learned Carmelitan friar does not pretend to have been an original observer, but he had studied sufficiently to be enabled to con¬ firm the opinions of Moro by arguments from other writers; and his selection of the doctrines then best established is so judicious, that we shall present a brief abstract of them to our readers, as illustrating the state of geology in Europe, and in$