324 HEROES OF SCIENCE. 



entire want of gentry here, but as it does not arise 

 from absenteeism, but from the great sub-division 

 of property, it evidently produces no ill effects on 

 the character and well-being of the people. 



Give my love to all at Kinnordy, and believe me 

 Your affectionate son, 



Charles Lyell. 



After visiting the south of France with Mur- 

 chison, Lyell prepared to cross the Alps and to see 

 Vesuvius, he being impressed with the necessity 

 of studying that grand modern example in order to 

 understand, perfectly, the extinct volcanoes they 

 had been studying in the Auvergne. He wrote 

 his father — " I scarcely despair now, so much do 

 these evidences of modern action increase upon 

 us as we go south (towards the more recent vol- 

 canic seat of action) of proving the positive 

 identity of the causes now operating with those of 

 former times." This was always his point, and it 

 certainly was not Murchison's. 



When at Vesuvius, Lyell recognized the similarity 

 of some very old volcanic dykes of Scotland with 

 those recently exposed in the old crater. Etna 

 was visited, and he was delighted at finding sea- 

 shells, resembling those now living on the floor of 

 the Mediterranean close by, some three hundred 

 feet above sea level. Whilst at Naples, and in the 

 midst of the highly suggestive scenery of the 

 beautiful neighbourhood, Lyell wrote to Murchison 

 a very characteristic letter, which should be well 



