In the shallow parts of many Swiss lakes, where there is a depth of no more than from 5 to 15 feet of water, ancient wooden piles are observed at the bottom sometimes worn down to the surface of the mud, sometimes projecting slightly above it.

Life Letters and Journals of Sir Charles Lyell 1. One of the contributions that Lyell made in Principles was to explain the cause of earthquakes. Both Whewell and Sedgwick wrote worried letters to him about this.

Lyell was a close and influential friend of Charles Darwin. He is best known as the author of Principles of Geology which popularised James Hutton's concepts of uniformitarianism – the idea that the earth was shaped by the same processes still in operation today.