Identity area
Reference code
Add. MS a/208/109
Title
Letter from Charles Lyell
Date(s)
- [17 Feb. 1831] (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
3 pp.
Context area
Name of creator
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Further to his problems with nomenclature [see CL to WW, 27 January 1831], CL gives his thoughts on certain terms: 'I might perhaps call the whole group of those canes the Ca[e]nophorous formation - whereas Cenophorous would approach too near to Cenotaphous - would it not be possible now to talk of Ca[e]nary briefly, as of tertiary...To throw out tertiary would I fear be too great an innovation as yet...I believe tertiary must until abandoned, as it will be by and by, be extended to all the cenaries'. CL is now looking for 'a term for the much abused word 'diluvium'' - 'I propose to adopt Bigsby's [John J. Bigsby] term Protalluvion'.