9th Oct. 1858
My dear Sir
I have read Sir. Cha. Lyell’s paper,1 and recommend it for publication in the Philosophical Transactions.2 Its style is clear, its facts are valuable, and its descriptions often highly interesting.
Judged of with strict reference to its title, the paper would, I think, bear consideration. The facts & arguments bearing upon the principal point, which is a physical one would, if drawn more closely together, be more impressive and convincing.
I am not sufficiently acquainted with the literature of geology to know the grounds of the assumption that continuous sheets of lava cannot be formed on slopes exceeding two or three degrees of inclination. But whatever these grounds may be I have no hesitation in holding with Sir Chas. Lyell, that they are untenable.
I may be perhaps allowed to remark that the observation of the changes of inclination, which modify the pressures and tensions of a lava stream in a known manner, are likely to be as instructive as the observation of the absolute slope of any part of the stream.
A summary of the results of the paper, stating what is new, and what corroboration would, I imagine, materially assist the reader in remembering what it contains.
Believe me dear Sir | Very truly yours | John Tyndall
Prof. Stokes | Sec. R.S.
RS RR/3/185 Tyndall 9 October 1858
Sir. Cha. Lyell’s paper: C. Lyell, ‘On the Structure of Lavas Which Have Consolidated on Steep Slopes; With Remarks on the Mode of Origin of Mount Etna, and on the Theory of “Craters of Elevation”’, Phil. Trans., 148 (1858), pp. 703–86; 904–6 (maps and figure).
and recommend it for publication in the Philosophical Transactions: Tyndall acted as a referee for the Phil. Trans., reviewing submissions and sending reports to Stokes, the journal’s editor.
Please cite as “Tyndall1564,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on