Geological Society. 273 



has shown me a series of documents of no ordinary interest to this 

 Society, and important to the correct history of European geology. 

 I should ill perform my present task were I to withhold this infor- 

 mation from you ; I proceed therefore to communicate it with what 

 brevity and simplicity I can. 



Mr. William Smith was born at Churchill in Oxfordshire a place 

 abounding in fossils, the playthings of his childhood, and the objects 

 of collection in his early youth. This is one of many instances where 

 things, in themselves inconsiderable, act powerfully on peculiar minds, 

 so as to influence the whole tenour of after-life. During his boyhood 

 his habits of observation became confirmed by lessons in practical sur- 

 veying : he remarked the alternations of argillaceous and stony strata, 

 and thence became acquainted with the origin of springs and the 

 true principles of draining j and fortunately many practical works of 

 this kind were carried on under his immediate inspection. 



In 1787 (when eighteen years of age) he was employed in survey- 

 ing and inclosing extensive tracts of common-land : this gave him a 

 further insight into the minutest modifications of structure in his native 

 country ; and within the two next years his surveys extended beyond 

 the oolite hills into the plain of the new red sandstone. The regular 

 stratification of the lias and the peculiarities of the red ground, at 

 that time new to him, made a lasting impression on his mind. Carry- 

 ing with him his acquired habits of accurate observation, he continued 

 his surveys (during 1790) to the coast of Hampshire, and to the 

 country round Salisbury and Bath j and he became gradually familiar 

 with the outline of the chalk downs, and the external characters of 

 large agricultural districts. In 1791, while employed in making ex- 

 tensive surveys in a part of Somersetshire, he remarked the identity 

 of the red marl and lias of that county with the corresponding for- 

 mations of Gloucestershire, and recognized their discordant position 

 on the coal measures. During the same year he made several detailed 

 sections of the coal strata; collected fossil plantvS which he found cha- 

 racteristic of particular beds in his sections j and remarked that none 

 of the many fossils of the lias were found either in the coal strata or 

 the red marl : and at this time he also began to make practical obser- 

 vations and inquiries with a view of ascertaining the range and extent 

 of the successive deposits, and the reality of a general line of clip to- 

 wards the east, of which he had already seen so many local instances. 



I think these facts of great importance, as they contain the germ 

 of all Mr. Smith's future discoveries. And we must bear in mind that 

 his attention was distracted by the duties of a laborious profession 

 that he had barely reached the age of manhood and that he had not 

 received a glimmering of direction in his general speculations. 



In the course of the two following years, while continuing the duties 

 of a surveyor and civil engineer, he became gradually acquainted with 

 all the minute facts of stratification in the country round Bath : and 

 for the purpose of bringing to the test the inquiries suggested by his 

 surveys in 1/91, he made two transverse sections along the lines of 

 two parallel valleys intersecting the oolitic groups (determining the 

 actual elevation of these lines by means of levels carried from the 



N. S. Vol. 9. No. 52. April 1831. 2 N Somerset 



