Quote#Books & Reading
'Either,' said he, 'these were terriginous, or if otherwise, the…
Quote byCharles Lyell · 1797–1875
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Chpt.3, p. 35.
English (original)
'Either,' said he, 'these were terriginous, or if otherwise, the animals they so exactly represent have become extinct. This writer appears to have been the first who was aware of the continuity over large districts of the principal groups of strata in the British series, and who proposed the construction of regular geological maps.
— Charles Lyell
More from Charles Lyell
Pallas, in more recent times, has drawn the same inference.
the extension of the sea had been greater at some former periods
The first who endeavored to draw a clear line of demarcation between these distinct departments, was Hutton, who declared that geology was in no ways concerned with 'questions as to the origin of things.
in the form of the coasts of Asia, and
important changes had taken place
This doctrine, it is true, had been laid down in terms almost equally explicit by Strabo, to explain the occurrence of fossil shells in the interior of continents, and to that geographer, and other writers of antiquity, Hooke frequently …