LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LOIfDOTf. lui 



House, Winchester, on the 28th of June 1874*, having heen elected 

 a Fellow on the 15th of March, 1836. 



Sib Chaeles Ltell, Bart, was born at Kiunordy, in Forfar- 

 shire, on November 14, 1797. Having received his early educa- 

 tion at Midhurst, in Sussex, he entered Exeter College, Oxford, 

 and graduated B.A. in 1819, and M.A. in 1821. While studying 

 at Oxford, he had the advantage of hearing the geological lectures 

 of Dr. Buckland. On leaving the University, he studied for the 

 Bar, but never practised that profession, his tastes having been 

 led by Dr. Buckland' s lectures to the study of geology as a science. 

 In 1824 he was elected an Honorary Secretary of the Geological 

 Society of London, of which he was one of the earliest Fellows. 

 On the opening of King's College, London, a few years later, he 

 was appointed its first Professor of G-eology. He had already 

 contributed some important papers to the ' Transactions of the 

 Geological Society,' including one " On a Eecent Formation of 

 Freshwater Limestone in Forfarshire, and on some Eeceut Depo- 

 sits of Freshwater Marl, with a Comparison of Recent with 

 Ancient Freshwater Formations, and an Appendix on Gyrogo- 

 nites, or Seed-vessel of Chara ;" also one " On the Strata of the 

 Eustic Clay Formation exhibited in the Cliffs between Christ- 

 church Head, Hampshire, and Studland Bay, Dorsetshire ; " ano- 

 ther " On the Freshwater Strata of Hordwell Cliff, Beacon Cliff, 

 and Barton Cliff, Hampshire ; " and an elaborate paper " On the 

 Belgian Tertiaries." Li 1827 he contributed to the ' Quarterly ' 

 a Review of Mr. Poulett Scrope's ' Geology of Central France,' 

 the perusal of which is said first to have stimulated him to pre- 

 pare and publish ' The Principles of Geology.' The first volume 

 of this treatise appeared in 1830, the second in 1832, and the third 

 in 1883. But before the work was completed, a second edition 

 of the earlier volumes was called for and produced. After the 

 ' Principles ' bad passed through five editions, a change was 

 effected in the structure of the work, certain chapters on geolog}% 

 strictly so called, being separated and reproduced in an amplified 

 form, under the title of the ' Elements of Geology,' whilst the 

 remainder retained the old title. In the ' Elements ' he de- 

 scribed those monuments of ancient changes through which 

 the earth and its inhabitants have passed, whilst in the ' Princi- 

 ciples ' he confined himself to the study of those forces which are 

 in constant operation around us, and which help us b}- fair ana- 



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