The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-12

(Reproduced from the South Auahllc
 Monthly for July.
 -uE trin of Lafayette through this
 country in the twenties was more | or less spectacular, and the places he visited are today pointed out as nls- toric, yet only 20 years later, Lyeil' whise rame will go down the ages linked wltn Goethe. Iamarck and Darwin, covered much the same ground, and 1t IS only In scientific works that one is reminded or the fact In recent reading, after meet- ing with several references to his stay in Alabama. became interested, and 1t was with intense delight that l was car ried back and saw our own section through the eyes of that wonderful oo- server and thinker. All awe of Charles Lyell, scientist and arch-destroyer of the anthropocentric idea which for so many centuries fettered the world of thought, was at once dispelled. for there was that in his charming geniality that makes the ..whole world kin'-even a Charles Lyell and the pine-woods squatter. whose hos pitality he often accepted when on ge- o1ogic excursions.
 Lyell made two trips to the United States-the first in 1S41-42, which fur nished material for his Travels in North America" He came as far south as Sa- yannah, His Travels in the United States' is the record of his second visit, when Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana formed a part of his itinery. Aside from the geologic importance of alx he a more faithful portrayal of American manners, customs and peculiarities. They are largely instrumental. in ameliorating British animosity by giving the English a better and kindlier understanding of Americans. At the time of their publi- cation they naturally found in this coun- try circulation only among the few, and are now rare books. His observations on the social conditions that made the south unioue, and that have been almost ob- liberated during the lapse of half cen tury, are deeply interested to the student of today.
 On January 15, 1S4s, we find Lyell and ris wife entering Macon. Ga, by train His eyes was immediately attracted by a wooden edifice of very peculiar struc- ture and picturesque form. crowning one of the hills" Learning that 1t was a blockhouse that had been in real service as a fort against Indians only 25 years before when this frontier knew not tho white mans habitat, 1t was with a mixed feeling of amusement and incongruity that he received the information that a conspicuous building near by was "a fe- male seminary lately established by the Methodists, where all young ladies take degrees"
 From Macon to Columbus, Ga., he had his first experience in a southern stage coach, which, while novel, must nave proved far from comfortable. for he did not forget to record the jolts caused by miserable roads and reckless driving. Leaving Columbus he was soon in the undulating pine-lands of Alabama. the monotony of which was frequently broken by sWamps of palmetto and magnolia. The spirit of the pines must have sung to him too, for "the sound of the wind in the boughs of the long-leaved pine' al- ways reminded him of the waves break ing on distant shore, and it was agree able to hear it swelling gradually, then dying away, as the breezes rose and fell"
 
 log cabin in the woods for the passengers to dine It did not look promising and Lyell was ready to put up with bad fare" but on entering found on the table "a wild turkey roasted, venison steaks and a partridge pie, all the product of the neighborlng forest Noticing the stumps of many pines, he counted the rings of annual growth to ascertain how <. long it would take to replace such for lest The oldest tree that he examined Amea sured four feet in diameter at three Feet above the base and showed Szo rings H. also found the ravines that are com Ynen throughout southern Georgia Ala 7 bhAa and Mississippi to be of recent for n1Rton and caused by deforestation,
 sh&ing the tertiary regions and also
 pafSof the cretaceous strata that have
 alwks been as "destructible as now,
 to hk been from the beginning covered
 -itf sn's forests Where the trees