v] OF EVOLUTION 45 



laying the foundations of stratigraphical geology, we 

 have already seen. Lyell, in his frequent visits to the 

 continent, became a friend of the illustrious Cuvier, 

 whose strong bias for Catastrophism was so forcibly 

 shown in his writings and conversation. 



What then, we may ask, were the causes which led 

 Lyell to abandon the views in which he had been 

 instructed, and to become the great champion of 

 Evolutionism ? 



It has often been assumed that Lyell was led by 

 the study of Button's works to adopt the ' Uniformi- 

 tarian ' doctrines. But there is ample evidence that 

 such was not the case. As late as the year 1839, 

 Lyell wrote of Hutton, 'Though I tried, I doubt 

 whether I fairly read half his writings, and skimmed 

 the rest 34 ' ; and he emphatically assured Scrope 'Von 

 Hoff has assisted me most 35 .' 



The fact is certain that Lyell, quite independently, 

 arrived at the same conclusions as Hutton, but by 

 totally different lines of reasoning. 



As early as 1817, when Lyell was only twenty 

 years of age, he visited the Norfolk coast and was 

 greatly impressed by the evidence of the waste of the 

 cliffs about Cromer, Aldborough, and Dunwich ; and 

 three years later we find him studying the opposite 

 kind of action of the sea in the formation of new 

 land at Dungeness and Romney Marsh. All through 

 his life there may be seen the results of these early 



