SIR CHARLES LTELL. 257 



several papers, one on a dike of serpentine, 

 another on shell marl and fossil fruit, and others 

 on plastic clay in Hampshire and the fresh-water 

 strata of Hants. He had been made a Fellow of 

 the Royal Society at twenty-nine, and was one of 

 the writers in the " Quarterly Review." 



The law work went on, but it was easy to see 

 where his heart was. He wrote a friend that he 

 had been " devouring " Lamarck : " That the earth 

 is quite as old as he supposes has long been my 

 creed, and I will try before six months are over to 

 convert the readers of the ' Quarterly ' to that 

 heterodox opinion. . . . Buckland has got a letter 

 from India about modern hyaenas, whose manners, 

 habitations, diet, etc., are everything he could 

 wish, and as much as could be expected had they 

 attended regularly three courses of his lectures." 



At thirty-one Lyell had made up his mind " that 

 there is most real independence in that class of 

 society who, possessing moderate means, are en- 

 gaged in literary and scientific hobbies ; " he had 

 given up the law, and planned the book that was 

 to make him famous " Principles of Geology." 

 He travelled now extensively in Italy and France, 

 studying volcanoes, glaciers, and fossils. At Au- 

 vergne, he began work with his dear friend Mur- 

 chison at six o'clock in the morning, " and neither 

 heat nor fatigue has stopped us an hour," he 

 writes to his parents. "I have really gained 

 strength so much, that I believe that I and my 

 eyes were never in such a condition before ; and, 



