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In the nineteenth century, geology emerged as a distinct academic discipline. It pointed the way towards the theory of evolution, as scientists including Gideon Mantell, Adam Sedgwick, Charles Lyell and Roderick Murchison began to use the evidence of minerals, rock formations and fossils to demonstrate that the Earth was older by millions of years than the conventional, Bible-based wisdom had supposed. They argued convincingly that the climate, flora and fauna of the distant past could be deduced from geological evidence. Volcanic activity, the formation of mountains, and the action of glaciers and rivers, tides and ocean currents also became better understood. This series includes landmark publications by pioneers of the modern earth sciences, who advanced the scientific understanding of our planet and the processes by which it is constantly re-shaped.

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149 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Earth Science

Page 1 of 8

Illustrations of the Viscous Theory of Glacier Motion
  • And Three Papers on Glaciers by John Tyndall
  • James D. Forbes, John Tyndall
  • Published online:
    05 June 2016
    Print publication:
    27 April 2015
  • This book brings together works published between 1846 and 1859 by the Scot James D. Forbes (1809–68) and Irishman John Tyndall (1820–93), both of whom were experienced alpinists as well as glaciologists. However, their views on the motion of glaciers were disparate, and a scientific quarrel over primacy and credit for discoveries continued even after their respective deaths. These papers include Forbes' articles on experiments on the flow of plastic bodies and analogies between lava and glacier flows, and on the plasticity of glacier ice, as well as Tyndall's observations on the physical phenomena of various Alpine glaciers, including the famous 'Mer de Glace', and a piece on the structure and motion of glaciers, co-written with Thomas Huxley. Several works by and about all three scientists (including works on Alpine travel) have also been reissued in this series.

Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles des quadrupèdes
  • Volume 4
  • Georges Cuvier
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    12 March 2015
  • Georges Cuvier (1769–1832), one of the founding figures of vertebrate palaeontology, pursued a successful scientific career despite the political upheavals in France during his lifetime. In the 1790s, Cuvier's work on fossils of large mammals including mammoths enabled him to show that extinction was a scientific fact. In 1812 Cuvier published this four-volume illustrated collection of his papers on palaeontology, osteology (notably dentition) and stratigraphy. It was followed in 1817 by his famous Le règne animal, available in the Cambridge Library Collection both in French and in Edward Griffith's expanded English translation (1827–35). Volume 4 of Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles focuses first on ruminants, horses and pigs. Cuvier then discusses fossils of carnivores, including bears, hyenas and big cats. The book concludes by describing fossil sloths, and the oviparous reptiles found in older strata, such as crocodiles, turtles, and marine dinosaurs.

Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles des quadrupèdes
  • Volume 3
  • Georges Cuvier
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    12 March 2015
  • Georges Cuvier (1769–1832), one of the founding figures of vertebrate palaeontology, pursued a successful scientific career despite the political upheavals in France during his lifetime. In the 1790s, Cuvier's work on fossils of large mammals including mammoths enabled him to show that extinction was a scientific fact. In 1812 Cuvier published this four-volume illustrated collection of his papers on palaeontology, osteology (notably dentition) and stratigraphy. It was followed in 1817 by his famous Le règne animal, available in the Cambridge Library Collection both in French and in Edward Griffith's expanded English translation (1827–35). Volume 3 of Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles recounts Cuvier's excitement at acquiring fossils from gypsum quarries near Paris, and the challenges of piecing the fragments together correctly. Cuvier describes the methodical reconstruction of the pachyderm fossils and lists other fossils occurring in the same rock formations: carnivores, an opossum, birds, reptiles, and fish.

Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles des quadrupèdes
  • Volume 1
  • Georges Cuvier
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    12 March 2015
  • Georges Cuvier (1769–1832), one of the founding figures of vertebrate palaeontology, pursued a successful scientific career despite the political upheavals in France during his lifetime. In the 1790s, Cuvier's work on fossils of large mammals including mammoths enabled him to show that extinction was a scientific fact. In 1812 Cuvier published this collection of his geological and osteological papers, focusing on living and extinct pachyderms, ruminants, horses and pigs. Volume 1 begins with a substantial essay on human origins and the formation of the earth, which was translated into English by Robert Kerr in 1813 (also available). It also includes an essay on the Egyptian ibis mummy brought back from Napoleon's campaign in Egypt, and an updated version of Cuvier's influential 1810 geological description of the Paris basin, co-authored with Alexandre Brogniart (1770–1847), which helped establish the principle of faunal succession in rock strata of different ages.

Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles des quadrupèdes
  • Volume 2
  • Georges Cuvier
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    12 March 2015
  • Georges Cuvier (1769–1832), one of the founding figures of vertebrate palaeontology, pursued a successful scientific career despite the political upheavals in France during his lifetime. In the 1790s, Cuvier's work on fossils of large mammals including mammoths enabled him to show that extinction was a scientific fact. In 1812 Cuvier published this four-volume illustrated collection of his papers on palaeontology, osteology and stratigraphy. It was followed in 1817 by his famous Le règne animal, available in the Cambridge Library Collection both in French and in Edward Griffith's expanded English translation (1827–35). Volume 2 of Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles describes eleven species of pachyderm found in recent alluvial deposits. They include elephants, mastodons, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, tapir and the hyrax (which Cuvier classified as an ungulate rather than a rodent). Cuvier argued from osteological comparisons with living species that all should be considered distinct species in their own right.

Elements of Geology
  • Charles Lyell
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    06 November 2014
  • Between 1830 and 1833, Charles Lyell (1797–1875) published his three-volume Principles of Geology, which has also been reissued in this series. The work's renown stems partly from the fact that the young Charles Darwin, on his voyage around the world aboard the Beagle, became influenced by Lyell's ideas relating to gradual change across large spans of time. Shaping the development of scientific enquiry in Britain and beyond, Lyell was determined to disconnect geology from religion. He originally intended some of the present work, first published in 1838, to be a supplement to the Principles, but later expanded it to serve as a general introduction to geology. The topics covered include the formation of various rock types, matters of field geology, and how the presence of marine fossils above sea level could be explained by the land rising, rather than the sea retreating. Many salient points are illustrated with woodcuts.

A Geological Manual
  • 1831 Edition
  • Henry T. De la Beche
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    06 November 2014
  • Sir Henry Thomas De la Beche (1796–1855) served as president of the Geological Society from 1847 to 1849, having contributed greatly to the development of geological science and surveying in the first half of the nineteenth century. He was also instrumental in the establishment of the Museum of Practical Geology in London. Reissued here in its 1831 first edition (which Darwin had with him aboard the Beagle), this work sought to help students to grasp the fundamentals of a rapidly advancing science. The first section considers the Earth's shape, density, temperature and other characteristics. The next part includes discussion of beaches, volcanos, and coastal processes. De la Beche then presents descriptions of various rock types, reflecting the state of contemporary geological knowledge. Highly successful, the book went through two further English editions; the expanded third edition is also reissued in this series.

Outlines of the Geology of England and Wales
  • With an Introductory Compendium of the General Principles of that Science, and Comparative Views of the Structure of Foreign Countries
  • W. D. Conybeare, William Phillips
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    06 November 2014
  • In the early nineteenth century, the gifted stratigrapher and amateur geologist William Phillips (1773–1828) gave several lectures to interested young people in Tottenham on the subject of geology. These lectures were later collected into a book, which Phillips expanded in later versions. This reached its peak in 1822 when the clergyman William Daniel Conybeare (1787–1857) collaborated with Phillips to produce this rigorous and improved assessment of the geological composition of England and Wales. Although no second volume was ever published, the book had a tremendous impact on geologists throughout the United Kingdom and Europe, inspiring foreign scholars to produce equivalent volumes about their own countries. Conybeare's concern for the stratigraphy of fossils is especially remarkable for the time. William Fitton, later president of the Geological Society of London, praised the book highly, remarking that 'no equal portion of the earth's surface has ever been more ably illustrated'.

Twenty Years on Ben Nevis
  • Being a Brief Account of the Life, Work, and Experiences of the Observers at the Highest Meteorological Station in the British Isles
  • William T. Kilgour
  • Published online:
    18 December 2014
    Print publication:
    28 August 2014
  • Not much is known about the life of William T. Kilgour, apart from the fact that in the late nineteenth century he spent two decades as an irregular member of staff at the meteorological observatory on Ben Nevis. In 1905, a year after the observatory closed due to lack of funds, Kilgour published this account of his experiences, including some of 'the more outstanding incidents inseparable from an existence spent at such an altitude', both as a chronicle of life on the mountain and to encourage the public to support the reopening of the observatory. The text is illustrated with several photographs of the striking natural surroundings as well as images of the meteorologists working and relaxing at the inhospitably located station. The result is an accessible and charming record of scientific life on Britain's highest peak around the turn of the century.

A Description of Active and Extinct Volcanos
  • With Remarks on their Origin, their Chemical Phaenomena, and the Character of their Products
  • Charles Daubeny
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    21 August 2014
  • First published in 1826, at a time when the earth sciences were in a state of confusion and controversy, this pioneering study of volcanic action by Charles Daubeny (1795–1867) was significant in promoting the scientific method and the science of geology, at the same time establishing the author's international reputation. Having studied medicine, Daubeny increasingly turned his attention to chemistry, volcanos and earthquakes. Elected a fellow of the Royal Society, he also sought to elevate the status of science in Britain. He presents evidence here, gathered from his travels across Europe, in a methodical fashion, developing contemporary ideas regarding the processes at work beneath the surface of the earth. This reissued first edition provides an opportunity to examine Daubeny's reasoning prior to the revisions of the 1848 edition (also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection), which was updated to take account of the work of Charles Darwin.

Fossils of All Kinds
  • Digested into a Method, Suitable to their Mutual Relation and Affinity
  • John Woodward
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    20 March 2014
  • To the naturalist John Woodward (c.1665–1728), fossils were 'much neglected, and left wholly to the Care and Treatment of Miners and meer Mechanicks'. He had built up a large personal collection of these samples of the Earth's petrified remains and spent much of his life developing a system for their classification, the results of which were published in this important illustrated work of 1728. A distinguished physician and a fellow of the Royal Society, Woodward wrote extensively on scientific topics, and had developed a theory that fossils were creatures destroyed in the flood described in the Bible. These ideas attracted critics and supporters in equal measure, but his contribution to techniques of fossil collection and classification were influential. In the present work, he devotes the early chapters to questions of description and classification, while the later sections contain some of his letters to his scientific contemporaries, including Isaac Newton.

Researches in Theoretical Geology
  • Henry T. De la Beche
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    20 March 2014
  • The geologist Sir Henry Thomas De la Beche (1796–1855) made important contributions as both a surveyor and a theorist. Elected to the Royal Society in 1823, he mapped geological strata in Devon during the 1830s and became the founding director of the British Geological Survey, the world's first national geological survey. In 1847, he was elected president of the Geological Society of London. Reflecting the scope of his scientific knowledge, the present work covers a wide range of topics, including the density of planets, the mineralisation of organic remains, and what could be inferred from the fossils thus created. The book was first published in 1834, the year he became embroiled in an argument with his contemporary Roderick Murchison. Lasting several years, the dispute became known as the 'The Great Devonian Controversy'. De la Beche's Geological Manual (third edition, 1833) has also been reissued in this series.

The Fossil Flora of Great Britain
  • Or, Figures and Descriptions of the Vegetable Remains Found in a Fossil State in this Country
  • Volume 3
  • John Lindley, William Hutton
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    13 February 2014
  • Employed early on in his career by Sir Joseph Banks, the botanist John Lindley (1799–1865) went on to conduct important research on the orchid family and also recommended that Kew Gardens should become a national botanical institution. This pioneering three-volume work of palaeobotany, first published between 1831 and 1837, catalogues almost 300 species of fossil plants from the Pleistocene to the Carboniferous period. The geologist and palaeontologist William Hutton (1797–1860), with whom Lindley collaborated, was responsible for collecting the fossil specimens from which the 230 plates were drawn. The first serious attempt at organising and interpreting the evidence of Britain's primeval plant life, this resource is notable also for its prefatory discussion of topics such as coal seams and prehistoric climate. Volume 3 includes a note on the action of water on plants. This is followed by the descriptions of plates 157–230.

The Fossil Flora of Great Britain
  • Or, Figures and Descriptions of the Vegetable Remains Found in a Fossil State in this Country
  • Volume 1
  • John Lindley, William Hutton
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    13 February 2014
  • Employed early on in his career by Sir Joseph Banks, the botanist John Lindley (1799–1865) went on to conduct important research on the orchid family and also recommended that Kew Gardens should become a national botanical institution. This pioneering three-volume work of palaeobotany, first published between 1831 and 1837, catalogues almost 300 species of fossil plants from the Pleistocene to the Carboniferous period. The geologist and palaeontologist William Hutton (1797–1860), with whom Lindley collaborated, was responsible for collecting the fossil specimens from which the 230 plates were drawn. The first serious attempt at organising and interpreting the evidence of Britain's primeval plant life, this resource is notable also for its prefatory discussion of topics such as coal seams and prehistoric climate. Volume 1 opens with a context-setting introduction and list of genera, followed by the descriptions of plates 1-79.

The Fossil Flora of Great Britain
  • Or, Figures and Descriptions of the Vegetable Remains Found in a Fossil State in this Country
  • Volume 2
  • John Lindley, William Hutton
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    13 February 2014
  • Employed early on in his career by Sir Joseph Banks, the botanist John Lindley (1799–1865) went on to conduct important research on the orchid family and also recommended that Kew Gardens should become a national botanical institution. This pioneering three-volume work of palaeobotany, first published between 1831 and 1837, catalogues almost 300 species of fossil plants from the Pleistocene to the Carboniferous period. The geologist and palaeontologist William Hutton (1797–1860), with whom Lindley collaborated, was responsible for collecting the fossil specimens from which the 230 plates were drawn. The first serious attempt at organising and interpreting the evidence of Britain's primeval plant life, this resource is notable also for its prefatory discussion of topics such as coal seams and prehistoric climate. Volume 2 opens with a preface on coal, followed by descriptions of some of the fossil plants found therein (plates 80-156).

Siluria
  • The History of the Oldest Known Rocks Containing Organic Remains, with a Brief Sketch of the Distribution of Gold over the Earth
  • Roderick Impey Murchison
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    02 January 2014
  • The Scottish geologist Sir Roderick Impey Murchison (1792–1871) first proposed the Silurian period after studying ancient rocks in Wales in the 1830s. Naming the sequence after the Silures, a Celtic tribe, he believed that the fossils representing the origins of life could be attributed to this period. This assertion sparked a heated dispute with his contemporary Adam Sedgwick, ultimately ruining their friendship. First published in 1854, Siluria is a significant reworking of Murchison's earlier book, The Silurian System, which had appeared in 1839. Thorough in his approach, he combines his own findings with those of researchers around the world, touching also on the later Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian periods as well as questions of natural history. An important text in nineteenth-century geology and palaeontology, the work contains a valuable geological map of Wales along with detailed engravings of fossils, including crustaceans, cephalopods and fish.

A Bibliography of Indian Geology
  • Being a List of Books and Papers, Relating to the Geology of British India and Adjoining Countries, Published Previous to the End of AD 1887
  • Richard Dixon Oldham
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013
  • Geologist and seismologist Richard Dixon Oldham (1858–1936) is best known for making two fundamental discoveries: in 1900 he identified primary, secondary and tertiary seismic waves, and in 1906 he presented evidence for the existence of the Earth's core. A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, the Geological Society of London and the Royal Society, Oldham spent a large part of his career in Asia. Involved in the Geological Survey of India for twenty-five years, he played a key role in the development of geological research in the region (his revised Manual of the Geology in India is also reissued in this series). Originally published in 1888, the present work was the first bibliography of its kind and remains a valuable reference tool in earth sciences. Notably, Oldham chose to broaden the scope of the work by also listing papers on Indian mineralogy, geography, archaeology and botany.

A Sketch of the Geology of Cornwall
  • Including a Brief Description of the Mining Districts, and the Ores Produced in Them
  • Brenton Symons
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    16 October 2013
  • Cornwall has one of the oldest mining histories in Europe. At one time, the county was a leading producer of tin, with over 2,000 mines in operation, but competition from overseas saw the boom years of the mid-nineteenth century give way to steady decline. Brenton Symons (1832–c.1908), an experienced mining engineer and metallurgist, firmly believed that the mineral wealth of Cornwall was far from exhausted and that careful application of financial investment and skilled personnel could boost the county's prosperity. This illustrated monograph, published in 1884, is his account of Cornwall's geological characteristics, giving details of the formation, location and economic use of various mineral deposits, and describing the extraction techniques of the key mining districts. Accessible and authoritative, this book remains relevant to readers interested in mineralogy, mining and the economic history of Cornwall.

The Complete Weather Guide
  • A Collection of Practical Observations for Prognosticating the Weather, Drawn from Plants, Animals, Inanimate Bodies, and Also by Means of Philosophical Instruments
  • Joseph Taylor
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    19 September 2013
  • Early nineteenth-century farmers often sowed their crops on an arbitrarily chosen day every year. Impatient with this practice, naturalist Joseph Taylor (c.1761–1844) presents an alternative method in this work, which first appeared in 1812. He argues that by studying the atmosphere, the behaviour of animals and the condition of local flora, a farmer can not only determine the optimal time for sowing, but also forecast the weather. Including the Shepherd of Banbury's famous rules for judging changes in the weather, alongside remarks on the quality of this wisdom, Taylor's book also draws on a wealth of wider countryside knowledge. He observes, for example, that the flowering of primroses and lettuce occurs at such precise times as to be useful for botanical clocks, while the proximity of bees to their hives and the agitation of dogs suggest oncoming weather conditions.

The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs
  • Being the First Part of the Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle, under the Command of Capt. Fitzroy, R.N. during the Years 1832 to 1836
  • Charles Darwin
  • Published online:
    05 December 2014
    Print publication:
    19 September 2013
  • Published in 1842, this important monograph by Charles Darwin (1809–82) formed the first part of a trilogy of geological studies based on observations made during the celebrated second voyage of the Beagle. Influenced by Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, Darwin drew in particular on data from the survey of the Keeling Islands in the Indian Ocean to support his theory that subsidence of the ocean floor can account for the formation of coral atolls. He first presented his findings in a paper for the Geological Society of London in 1837, but a heavy workload and illness delayed the appearance of this elegantly argued and illustrated study. For this and his work on barnacles, Darwin would receive the Royal Society's royal medal in 1853. The other studies in the trilogy, Geological Observations on the Volcanic Islands (1844) and Geological Observations on South America (1846), are also reissued in this series.

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