16 APRIL 1859, Page 9

Last evening Sir Charles Lyell delivered a lecture at the

Royal Insti- tution, "On the Consolidation of Lava on Steep Slopes, and on the Origin of the Conical Form of Volcanos." Recent observations made on Mount Etna by the lecturer, tended to weaken the hypothesis of upheaval as the means by which volcanic mountains are formed, and confirmed the idea of the conical shape being produced by the accumulation of ejected mat- ter falling around the crater.