Geological Society. 277 



him in the fields, I soon found to be the fact, and also, that they had 

 a general inclination to the south-east, following each other in regu- 

 lar succession. 



With the open liberality peculiar to Mr. Smith, he wished me to 

 communicate this to the Rev. J. Townsend of Pewsey (then in Bath), 

 who was not less surprised at the discovery. But we were soon much 

 more astonished by proofs of his own collecting, that whatever stra- 

 tum was found in any part of England, the same remains would be 

 found in it and no other. Mr. Townsend, who had pursued the sub- 

 ject 40 or 50 years, and had travelled over the greater part of civi- 

 lized Europe, declared it perfectly unknown to all his acquaintance, 

 and he believed to all the rest of the world. 



In consequence of Mr. Smith's desire to make so valuable a disco- 

 very universally known, I, without reserve, gave a card of the English 

 strata to Baron Rosencrantz, Dr. Muller of Christiana, and many 

 others, in the year 1801. 



I am happy to hear that the Geological Society proposes to pay a 

 deserved compliment to his merits, to which I most gratefully bear 

 a willing testimony ; and am, Sir, 



Most respectfully, 



Yours, 

 The Reverend Professor Seclgwick, B. RICHARDSON. 



Trinity College, Cambridge-^. 



Mr. Smith's views now expanded through the influence of sym- 

 pathy and the hopes of patronage (too feebly answered in the event); 

 and under the advice of the two gentlemen I have mentioned, he be- 

 gan to commit his thoughts to paper, and to designate the great sub- 

 divisions of our secondary series by names, many of which have been 

 since almost universally current, and are adopted in our Society : and 

 there now exists, in the hand-writing of Mr. Richardson, a geological 

 table of our successive formations, dictated by Mr. Smith in 1799, for 

 the express purpose of serving as the foundation of a memoir, to ac- 

 company an intended geological map of England. This very curious 

 and important document is now placed before you ; and as it was the 

 first tabular sketch of our formations, drawn up before he had, in 

 conjunction with Mr. Richardson, finally decided upon the names by 

 which they ought to be designated, you will remark, that the succes- 

 sive groups, from the coal measures to the chalk inclusive, are re- 

 presented by a series of numbers, accompanied with explanatory 

 notes, but without any proper names affixed to them. 



At a great sacrifice, and great personal expense, Mr. Smith 

 now began to extend his observations with a direct view to publi- 

 cation : and in 1801 he printed a very elaborate prospectus, of 

 which I fortunately possess a copy (now on the table of the So- 

 ciety), containing proposals for publishing, by subscription, a work 

 in 4to, entitled, " Accurate Delineations and Descriptions of the 



f The letter being addressed to me at Cambridge during my absence, was 

 only received a day or two before the Anniversary. 



Natural 



