i86i.] LYELL'S WORK. 1 57 



the Gardener s Chronicle^ but I have taken them in for so 

 many years, that I cannot give them up. 



[The next letter refers to Lyell's visit to the Biddenham 

 gravel-pits near Bedford in April 1861. The visit was made 

 at the invitation of Mr. James Wyatt. who had recently dis- 

 covered two stone implements *' at the depth of thirteen feet 

 from the surface of the soil," resting ''immediately on solid 

 beds of oolitic-limestone." * Here, says Sir C. Lyell, " I . 

 . . . for the first time, saw evidence which satisfied me of 

 the chronological relations of those three phenomena — the 

 antique tools, the extinct mammalia, and the glacial forma- 

 tion."] 



C. Darwin to C. Lyell. 



Down, April 12 [1861]. 



My dear Lyell, — I have been most deeply interested 

 by your letter. You seem to have done the grandest work, 

 and made the greatest step, of any one with respect to man. 



It is an especial relief to hear that you think the French 

 superficial deposits are deltoid and semi-marine ; but two 

 days ago I was saying to a friend, that the unknown manner 

 of the accumulation of these deposits, seemed the great blot 

 in all the work done. I could not stomach debacles or lacus- 

 trine beds. It is grand. I remember Falconer told me that 

 he thought some of the remains in the Devonshire caverns 

 were pre-glacial, and this, I presume, is now your conclusion 

 for the older celts with hyena and hippopotamus. It is grand. 

 What a fine long pedigree you have given the human race ! 



I am sure I never thought of parallel roads having been 

 accumulated during subsidence. I think I see some diffi- 

 culties on this view, though, at first reading your note, I 

 jumped at the idea. But I will think over all I saw there. I 

 am (stomacho volente) coming up to London on Tuesday to 

 work on cocks and hens, and on Wednesday morning, about 

 a quarter before ten, I will call on you (unless I hear to the 



* * Antiquity of Man,' fourth edition, p. 214. 



