144 Transactions of the Society. 



In William Smith (1769-1839) we have a man of humble 

 origin, born at Churchill in Oxfordshire, who, by force of will and 

 industry, trained himself and became a mineral surveyor and 

 geologist of no mean order. He not only mapped out the geology 

 of England and Wales in a most admirable manner, but dis- 

 covered a great and original principle, which has stood the test 

 of over 100 years of subsequent geological field-work, namely, 

 that the relative age of sedimentary deposits can be determined 

 with certainty by their organised fossil-contents. This principle, 

 which he was able to prove to demonstration over wide areas and 

 in hundreds of instances, together with the excellent map which 

 he produced, obtained for him from Sedgwick the title of " Father 

 of English Geology." Had William Smith been as able a writer 

 as he was a brilliant observer in the field and mapper, his fame 

 would have been more widely known than it is. One of his 

 geological contemporaries was Samuel Woodward * of Norwich 

 (1790-1837). Suffice it to say that with a succession of men 

 like Sedgwick, Conybeare, Buckland, Phillips, Murchison, Lyell, 

 Scrope, Fitton, de la Beche, Griffiths, Portlock, Prestwich, Eamsay, 

 Geikie, geology has progressed enormously in the past 100 years, 

 and is now one of the most popular sciences of the day. 



Prom the birth of orderly stratigraphical geology has arisen 

 the cognate science of Palaeontology which treats of all fossil re- 

 mains, and takes note of their succession in the rocks as well as 

 their zoological position among living organisms. 



But since the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, now 

 forty years ago, a new and ardent school of zoologists and botanists 

 have entered the field of palaeontology, who, — whilst they ignore 

 entirely the advantage which the stratigraphical geologist derives 

 from fossils, looked at from the chronological aspect, — are never- 

 theless eager to possess themselves of the palosozoological evidence 

 they furnish, which is in fact the key to open the lock of the 

 casket that holds the secret of the origin of species, and even, 

 they believe, of the beginning of life on the earth — a secret they 

 are as eager to learn, as that for which our first mother Eve 

 bartered Paradise, or that which excited the curiosity of the Greek 

 Pandora, or the unhappy wives of Bluebeard. 



Although I may not deceive you with promises to disclose the 

 very beginning of life, I may at least be able so far to lift the lid 

 of the casket as to give you a glance at some of the earliest 

 appearances of groups of living organisms, and point out a few 

 which have persisted over vast periods of time, and others which, 

 though of great importance at one time (like some of our celebrated 

 human families), have now entirely disappeared. 



* Author of a work entitled 'Outline of the Geology of Norfolk,' 1833, and 'A 

 Synoptical Table of British Organic Remains,' 1830, and about thirty other memoire 

 and works. 



