XIV 



times a very great advance. At first the descriptive part, relating to the 

 succession of the stratified formations of the earth's crust, was included in 

 the larger work ; but this w^as soon separated, and expanded into an in- 

 dependent volume under the title of ' Elements of Geology,' of which 

 (including the ' Student's Elements ') the author lived to edit eight edi- 

 tions. Of these, too, each as it appeared was hailed as the summing-up 

 of a calm and impartial judge of the evidence and arguments in all the 

 disputed stratigraphical questions of the day. When the discussion first 

 arose as to the nature and significance of the worked flints found in the 

 valley of the Somme and elsewhere, Lyell at once put himself in the front 

 by collecting all the available information and publishing it, in 1863, in 

 his ' Antiquity of Man.' 



^ir Charles Lyell's position, as a foremost thinker among the geolo- 

 gists of his day, w^as fully acknowledged during his lifetime. He twice 

 held the Chair of the Geological Society. He presided over the British 

 Association at Bath in 1864. He received the honour of D.C.L. from 

 his own University in 1855. The Hoyal Society gave him the Copley Medal 

 in 1858. He was chosen a member of the chief learned societies of Europe 

 and America. By his own Sovereign he was knighted in 1848 ; and, as a 

 further mark of Her Majesty's appreciation, he was raised to the dignity 

 of a Baronet in 1864. He married a daughter of the late Mr. Leonard 

 Horner, E.H.S. Throughout his long and honoured career she joined to 

 the fullest in his labours, accompanying and aidiug him in his journeys, 

 assisting him in his literary work, entering into his geological speculations 

 with the heartiest sympathy, and, above all, sharing his friendships and 

 throwing over them, and over the social gatherings at his house, the charm 

 of her genial manner and conversation. She predeceased him in 1873, 

 leaving no children. Sir Charles himself died on the 22nd of Eebruary, 

 1875, and, as a fitting close to his illustrious life, was publicly buried in 

 Westminster Abbey. — A. G. 



Dr. Neil Aeis^ott was born at Arbroath, in Scotland, on the 15th May, 

 1788, and died in London on the 2nd March, 1874. He passed his child- 

 hood at Upper Dysart, and began his education partly with his mother, 

 a woman of great energy and ability, and partly in the parochial school 

 of Lunan, near Arbroath. Erom his earliest years he gave great 

 attention to all natural objects around him, and in after life he often 

 referred to the experience thus acquired as his introduction to the pheno- 

 mena of the physical world. 



Neil Arnott entered the Aberdeen Grammar School in November 

 1798, and he continued there three years. He went into the Bursary 

 Competition at Marischal College at the beginning of the session of 

 1801. He was then thirteen, and older than the average of boys at the 

 same stage in the school. He came in sixth, and was entered a student 

 of Marischal College, where he went through the accustomed course of 



