This brown leather notebook contains Lyell's notes from London and Edinburgh, with lists including "luggage per steamboat" and packings lists, a draft of opening of a second volume, and a sketch of Edinburgh Castle hill with diagram of geological layers. Notes are written in pencil and ink, with many revisions. The front cover reads "August 1831, London, Edin[burgh]."

The following table of contents is Lyell's own words, copied from Lyell's own "Index", found at the beginning and end of the notebook, transcribed from digital surrogates using the platform Transkribus. When known, Lyell's abbreviations and contractions have been expanded using brackets []. When writing is unclear, and transcription is not possible, this is denoted using [...]. Quotation marks are Lyell's own notation for ditto, as is the abbreviation "d'o". The inclusion of [sic] indicates the misspelling of a word is deliberate and taken from the notebook.

p. 3, Mirebel, M., on plants which follow man, on walls [et cetera]
p. 3, D'Urville on bot[any] of Isle of ascension
p. 5, Bagshot sand, escarpm[ent]
p. 8, Ganges, an epitome of the globe
p. 14,15, Skeletons in Peat, refer[ences] to works on
p. 22, Milton, extracts from,
p. 24, Bacon, d[itt]o
p. 26, Mammoth tusk found at Kilmarnock
p. 32, Edin[burgh] Castle, section on the south side of hill
p. 38, Revolutions, origin of the doctrines respecting
p. 42,44,46 E. de Beaumont's theory
p. 72, Webster + Sowerby's bills am[ount] of
p. 75, Lectures, Mem[oranda] for
p. 76, Fahr into cent. how to convert
p. 58, Lectures, persons to whom tickets to be given
p. 61,83-87, Deshayes's tables correct[ion]s of [et cetera
p. 65, Otaheite, Mr Bennetts account of the [...] of
p. 73, Orinoco, distance of the great mouth of the, from St. Vincents
p. 73, Account of money p[ai]d to Deshayes