Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
who violently opposed the sacred theorists, could not subscribe to this
viewpoint, like Ray and an ever-increasing number of other men of
science who were distancing themselves from the earlier theories of
the Earth. It is easy now to recognise Lhwyd's conclusions as being
severely flawed, knowing as we do that the boulder fields at Llanberis
were formed as huge boulders were deposited by melting ice during the
Pleistocene ice age. However, if one applies figures to Lhwyd's obser-
vations what age do the boulders indicate? Most adults at the time
lived until their sixties, and if two or three boulders fell in that time,
then one fell every 20 to 30 years. A count of the boulders suggest that
there are at least 10,000 at Llanberis, which gives between 200,000 and
300,000 years as the age of the Earth using Lhwydian logic. This may
not sound long, but in the context of biblical chronologies, it is fifty
times as great.
Lhwyd was an enthusiast and a workaholic, who in his short life
of 49 years made major contributions in linguistics, natural history
and antiquities. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, but not
without some difficulty. His nomination had been opposed by John
Woodward with whom he had clashed over their differing views of the
nature and formation of fossils. It is ironic, given his early pecuniary
circumstances, that Lhwyd was to die at a time when his financial
situation looked to have eased through his appointment as a minor
officer in the University. During the month of June 1709 when the
battle of Poltava, which pitted the army of Charles XII of Sweden against
the Russian forces of Peter the Great, was nearing its end, Lhwyd
probably spent most nights sleeping, as was his habit, in his office or
quarters in the Ashmolean. His rooms were damp and probably stuffy
(three hundred years later similar conditions are still, unfortunately,
frequently found in museums). Staying overnight in such conditions,
together with his life-long affliction with asthma, combined with
pleurisy, did little for his health, and he died in the Ashmolean on
30 June 1709.
If you happen to visit Oxford and have the time, visit the ancient
church of St Michael's and walk up the south aisle. This was associated
