No. 1.] NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 9 



for the first time, President of the Geological Society in 1836. 



Sir Charles received the honor of knighthood in 1848, and 

 was raised to a baronetcy in 1864. He had the degree of 

 D.C.L. from Oxford and that of LL.D. from Cambridge. He 

 was thrice president of the Geological Society, and once of the 

 British Association. 



He married in 1832 the eldest daughter of Leonard Horner, 

 himself a good geologist, and a friend and helper of Lyell in his 

 earlier work ; and his wife not only graced his home and sedu- 

 lously attended to all the. wants and interests of a man too 

 devoted to his specialties to give much attention to the ordinary 

 affairs of life, but shared the fatigues of his journeys, and gave 

 no small help in many of his works, being herself well acquainted 

 with natural history and an accomplished linguist. Her death, less 

 than two years ago, deprived his old age of its chief earthly 

 stay. 



In January, 1830, the first volume of his Principles of Geology 

 appeared, and was followed by the second in January, 1832, and 

 by the third in the following year. This work has reached its 

 eleventh edition ; and with the Elements or Manual of Geology, 

 which followed, it may be said to have done more than any other 

 book to shape the geological science of the time. More especially 

 the doctrine of reference to existing causes for the explanation 

 of all geological phenomena, at once removed theoretical geology 

 from a speculative to an inductive basis, and laid a stable 

 foundation for a history of the earth. Though Lyell published 

 many detached geological memoirs, and also gave to the world 

 very instructive and interesting narratives of his travels in 

 America, and latterly summed up the facts and conclusions at 

 present reached with reference to the latest geological period, in 

 his "Antiquity of Man," his great fame must rest on his Prin- 

 ciples of Geology, and on the effect of this work in giving form 

 to geological science. 



While the name and fame of Lyell belong to the world, we in 

 British America and our brother geologists of the United States 

 have some special cause to revere his memory, because of his 

 world-wide grasp of the subjects he studied, and because of his 

 eminent services to our own local geology and geologists ; and, 

 as examples of these, I shall take the liberty of referring to 

 some of them which came under my own personal observation. 



The visits of Sir Charles Lyell to America were three in 



