A MANUAL OF ELEMENTARY GEOLOGY; By Sir Charles Lyell, M.A. F.R.S. / Revised from the Sixth Edition, Greatly Enlarged / Illustrated with 750 Woodcuts

New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1858. Sixth and final expanded, corrected American edition. Decorative embossed cloth. Very Good/None [Archival clear polyester sleeve added]. Wood engravings. Tall and thick 8vo (9 1/2' x 6 3/8"), original publisher's brown blind-stamped cloth with gilt lettering on spine, illustrated with frontispiece (tissue guard) and 750 woodcuts, xvi + 685 pages [1] blank, [2] Ads. Weight: 2 lbs. 13 oz. Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, FRS (1797 - 1875) was a Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining Earth's history. Lyell's major and pathfinding book, Principles of Geology (3 vols.,1830-33), demonstrated how geological formations were often laid down (with fossils) over very long periods of Earth's history. <br/><br/>These lengthy periods of stratigraphy and on-going creation of geological features provided a scientific basis for questioning and over-ruling biblical chronologies. His thorough demonstrations of continuing geological formation (including earthquakes, volcanoes, stratigraphy, and periodization of geological history) also laid a sound basis for what would become Darwin's evolutionary theories. <br /> <br /> According to Loren Eiseley, "Lyell must be accorded the secure distinction not alone of altering the course of geological thought, but of having been the single greatest influence in the life of Charles Darwin." The great geologist was both a mentor and friend of young Charles, and The Principles was published just before Darwin set forth on HMS Beagle.<br /> <br /> Charles Lyell is number 28 among The Scientific 100 by John Gailbraith Simmons.<br/><br/> Lyell's Principles of Geology is listed in Heralds of Science, as No. 96. Geology (1830-33). This Manual of Elementary Geology is its direct descendant.<br/><br/> Attractive, solid clean copy with light wear and a few scuffs to remarkably well preserved cloth. Unmarked pages with very light age-toning and the occasional smudge or light foxing. Many crisp, black wood engravings. Small bookplate on front pastedown. <br/><br/>A comprehensive, well-illustrated, early geological textbook--with numerous references to fossils--which surveys the ancient and ongoing geological changes to the Earth.