TFIE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



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The peculiarities which distinguish them from other 

 marine deposits have been proved, on a long string 

 of evidence such as would be received ifi any court 

 of justice, to be confined to certain latitudes in the 

 northern and southern hemispheres, and to be 

 connected with chmatical conditions such as 

 those of the circumpolar regions, having had at 

 the period these deposits were formed a greater ex- 

 tension than at present into the temperate latitudes. 

 The denudation of these marine beds during the 

 period of re-elevation and submergence having 

 been proved by the presence of marine shells, it is 

 to be presumed no evidence is necessary to prove 

 that they have been reconverted into land. Out of 

 this re-elevation and the rearrangement of these 

 materials along the lines of drainage, during the 

 period of reconversion into land, arose that irregu- 

 larity of distribution instead of in continuous 

 masses, which caused these deposits to be attri- 

 buted for a time to a transient irruption of the 

 sea, instead of to its long-continued action of a dif- 

 ferent kind from that prevailing in any but arctic 

 latitudes. 



But to return to the history of William Smith. 

 The possessor of these important generalizations 

 continued to reside in the obscure village of High 

 Litton. From this residence he continued to direct 

 all the operations on the Somersetshire Canal. In 

 the early pait of 1/96 he had begun to commit his 

 thoughts to paper for publication, and in 1797 he 

 drew up a plan for such a work ; but it was not 

 till 1799, after his engagement with the canal 

 company ceased, that he made public his intention 

 to commence a general work on the stratification 

 of Britain, and to enter on the prosecution of an 

 actual survey of the geological strata of the whole 

 of England and ^Yales. Whilst he had found his 

 geological knowledge of considerable advantage to 

 him in the works of the canal, it was impossible 

 for a plain, simple-minded, and enthusiastic man 

 to avoid explaining his views, to such intelli- 

 gent persons as would listen to them, though he 

 found few who interested themselves in his specula- 

 tions any further than as they appeared to promise 

 immediate practical results. It is a very common 

 failing, arising from the practical turn of the Enghsh 

 mind, to undervalue discoveries in pure science, 

 which, though they often appear at first destitute 

 of practical applicability, have, after a time, revolu- 

 tionized the whole course of economic practice, 



Mr. Thomas Davis, agent to the Marquis of 

 Bath, and author of the report to the Board of 

 Agriculture on the agriculture of Wiltshire, when 

 informed by Smith of the constitution of the Wilt- 

 shire hills and vales, and their relations to the 

 neighbouring districts, exclaimed, "That is the only 

 way to learn the true nature of soils." " Even such 



sympathy," says Professor Phillips, "was highly 

 prized by the modest father of Enghsh geology; 

 and when geology had gained a high degree of 

 favour in public estimation, he often recounted, 

 among many mortifying instances of disregard, 

 this apparently slight and solitary instance of 

 encouragement." 



But while Smith pointed out the effects of the- 

 regular strata of our geological maps in defining 

 the general agricultural character of a district, he 

 was too well aware of the importance of the super- 

 ficial deposits to overlook, as some have done, their 

 influence in producing soils of every dififerent value, 

 upon each of our geological formations. 



In 1799 his connection with the canal company 

 ceased, and he was now not only at liberty for more 

 extended geological inquiries, but placed under the 

 necessity of making known the results of his dis- 

 coveries, and of foimding on them a professional 

 practice which might provide the expense of travel- 

 ling, in order to verify and extend them, and to fill 

 up the outlines of a geological map of England and 

 Wales. In these objects he was successful. 



The neighbourhood of Bath is rich in fossils, 

 and many collections of them had been formed by 

 those who were ignorant of their value for the 

 identification of strata. It was probably after 

 seeing one of these collections that Smith wrote 

 the following passage in a note-book, dated 

 January, 1796 : — 



" Fossils have been long studied as great cu- 

 riosities, collected with great pains, treasured with 

 great care, and at a great expense, and shown and 

 admired with as much pleasure as a child's rattle 

 or hobbyhorse is shown and admired by himself 

 and his playfellows, because it is pretty; and this 

 has been done by thousands who have never paid 

 the least regard to that wonderful order and regu- 

 larity with which nature has disposed of these 

 singular productions, and assigned to each class 

 its peculiar stratum." 



This portion of his discoveries became public 

 property, and exercised an influence on the geologi- 

 cal views of those who knew nothing of the author 

 of them. Smith quickly acquired extensive employ- 

 ment in the practical application of his knowledge 

 to mineral surveying and draining of land. He 

 had become acquainted with the Rev. Benjamin 

 Richardson, then residing at Bath, who possessed 

 a large collection of local fossils, most of which he 

 had collected himself, but had no knowledge of 

 the order of the strata, nor of the connexion of 

 the organic remains with that order. Smith, on 

 the other hand, had little knowledge of the true 

 nature of these organic forms, or their relations to 

 existing types. That certain of his fossils had been 

 found in certain rocks Richardson could not deny; 



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