THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



21 



explaining his maps to the Duke of Clarence. A 

 plan was proposed for associating him with the 

 Ordnance Survey, and thus anticipating the Go- 

 vernment Geological Survey undertaken in after- 

 years at the suggestion and under the direction of 

 Sir Henry De la Beche. The time, however, was 

 not ripe for it. Smith was still too much in ad- 

 vance of the practical and scientific men of his day, 

 and this project, like several others proposed by 

 those who took an interest in the advancement of 

 his views, and were aware of their real value, came 

 to nothing. At the instance of Sir Joseph Banks, 

 to whom Smith was introduced at one of the Wo- 

 burn sheep-shearings, in 1804, a subscription 

 was opened for publishing the results of Smith's 

 labours, according to a plan suggested by Richard- 

 son, in 1801. To this Sir Joseph Banks put down 

 £50 as the moiety of his subscription. Others were 

 paid or promised. The plan, however, as usual, 

 came to nothing. Various circumstances pre- 

 vented the publication : the failure of Debrit, the 

 publisher, who had undertaken the work, was one; 

 the course of geological studies then carried on by 

 the rival schools of Hutton and Werner was ano- 

 ther. The Wernerians disregarded organic re- 

 mains, or, as they called them, "extraneous" fossils, 

 altogether, and looked upon attempts to identify 

 strata by a method so different from their own 

 as " empirical," and beneath " well educated 

 geognosts," as they styled themselves. The Hut- 

 tonians, conducting their investigations among the 

 granitic and other crystalline rocks destitute of 

 organic remains, paid even less regard to fossils 

 thari the Wernerians, and the public at large took 

 little interest in what they did not understand. 

 Nor was Smith himself wholly free from blame. 

 Instead of fulfilling his engagements in making 

 public the knowledge which he had already ac- 

 quired, he devoted all his energies and all the time 

 he could spare from his professional occupations 

 to extending his knowledge of the strata, and com- 

 pleting a work which was too great for the powers 

 of any one individual. 



These causes, together with a certain inability 

 under which he laboured, to condense his ideas, 

 and to write for the press, though a most volu- 

 minous writer of notes, conspired to retard the pub- 

 lication of his discoveries, and combined with pre- 

 judices which the novelty of his discoveries occa- 

 sioned in the minds of many led them to doubt 

 their reality. Like every man who attempts anything 

 that is in advance of the age, he had not only the 

 practical, but the scientific men to contend with. 

 Perhaps something must be attributed to prejudices 

 arising out of the high antiquity, compared with 

 that of the human race, which his discoveries as- 

 signed to the earth, and to the refutation which they 



afforded of received opinions respecting the shells 

 embedded in the solid rocks being proofs of the 

 Deluge. To that event they had long been referred, 

 though in utter defiance, as we showed in a former 

 article, of the whole tenor of the sacred narrative. 

 But though the geologists of that period gave little 

 heed to Smith's discoveries, they began to be better 

 appreciated when at a later period the Geological 

 Society was established, in 1807, for the collection 

 of facts. Even then, however. Smith himself was 

 not held in the esteem among geologists which he 

 deserved. 



Farey, who owned himself as a pupil of Smith, 

 and always asserted his priority of discovery, toge- 

 ther with others who had appropriated his know- 

 ledge without acknowledgment, were made ho- 

 norary Fellows ; Smith himself, however, was passed 

 over unnoticed. He had ample justice, however, 

 done to his claims to be the founder of the English 

 school of geology at a later period, as we shall 

 show hereafter, through the instrumentality of Dr. 

 Fitton and Professor Sedgwick. 



In the end of 1812, Smith received proposals from 

 Mr. Carey, to publish the map of the strata ; and 

 terms were soon settled. The work commenced with 

 the beginning of 1813, and was completed in 1815. 

 Thus the energy of an enterprising tradesmen 

 effected what had been expected in vain while reli- 

 ance was placed on great and powerful patrons, or 

 the assistance of the Government. 



Smith had hitherto laid down on the county 

 maps of that eminent engraver the result of twenty 

 years' labour. These maps were too full of the 

 names and designations of political geography for 

 the purpose. Carey, therefore, undertook the draw- 

 ing and engraving of a new and very elegant large 

 map, better suited to the object in view. 



In 1814 some portions of the map were com- 

 pletely coloured, particularly four sheets of the 

 vicinity of Bath, and Smith was exhibiting them be- 

 fore the Board of Agriculture at the time the Allied 

 Sovereigns were entering Xondon. On that occa- 

 sion Mr. Benjamin Hall, the son-in-law of Mr. 

 Crawshay, then deceased, who had taken an in- 

 terest in Smith's researches, and had given him 

 £50, as the first half of his subscription for their 

 publication, came to Smith, and expressed his wil- 

 lingness both to complete the payment, and to ac- 

 company it by a subscription of his own. Lord 

 Leicester, the Duke of Bedford, and Lord Hardwick 

 contributed similar subscriptions, to soften the 

 poverty which now, in the zenith of his success, 

 began to close around the author of this great work. 

 In 1815 a coloured map of the strata of England 

 and Wales was submitted to the Society of Arts, 

 and was published in August of the same year, de- 

 dicated to Sir Joseph Banks. His fame as an ori- 



