ABSTRACT
The quantitative measurement of landscape processes made notable progress during the reign of uniformitarianism. About the mid-nineteenth century scientific methods in general were highly favourable to inquiries into the rates and nature of evolution of natural phenomena. Students of landscape had already pursued some scientific investigations (see Chapters 8 and 15) when Lyell published his Principles and he had seized upon them eagerly as providing fruitful support for uniformitarian suggestions. Because rivers are more amenable to scientific measurement and to physical laws than are most other landscape processes, much of the quantitative work on landscape-forming agencies tended to draw attention to the power of running water. Indeed it was the accumulation of factual observations that finally tipped the scale in favour of subaerial as opposed to submarine erosion.
