But it wasn't until the late 1700s -- when Scottish geologist James Hutton, who observed sediments building up on the landscape, set out to show that rocks were time clocks -- that serious ...

But it wasn't until the late 1700s -- when Scottish geologist James Hutton, who observed sediments building up on the landscape, set out to show that rocks were time clocks -- that serious ...

But Lyell was persuasive. In 1829 he published volume one of his great work, Principles of Geology, in which he championed and won general acceptance for Hutton's "Uniformitarian" theories.