Wenicr and Smith, 11 



Bl.rata, the non-goologlcal reader will readily understand that the lowest arc 

 the oldest, and that as each formatiou contains fossils peculiar to itself and 

 which occur in none of the others, once these fossils are known they serve as 

 marks to identify the rocks of the different ages of the world. 



These all important facts that in every part of the world the forma- 

 tions are disposed in a regular series, never reversed except in very few 

 instances of small geographical extent, were only brought to light within the 

 last seventy-five j-ears. In 1778, Werner, a celebrated professor in the 

 mining schools in Saxony, taught his scholars that, in the crust of the earth, 

 beds of rocks were arranged acccrding to a certain order, which he main- 

 tained prevailed throughout the whole world. About the same time, Mr. 

 William Smith, an English Surveyor, by extensive examinatioiis of the rocks 

 of his native country, came to the same conclusions arrived at by Werner, 

 and independantly of the German geologist ; but Smith also announced, that 

 the different formations were marked by particular fossils, peculiar to each, 

 and this discovery really constitutes the key to the whole science of geology. 



In 1790, Smith published his " Tabular Yiew of the British Strata,'^ 

 and from this time forth, he laboured, says Sir Charles I.yell, " to con- 

 Btruct a geological map of the w^hole of England, and, with the gTcatest 

 disinterestedness of mind, communicated the results of his investigations to 

 all who desired information, giving such publicity to his original views as to 

 enable his contemporaries almost to compete with him in the race. The 

 execution of his map was completed in 1815, and remains a lasting monu- 

 ment of original talent and extraordinary perseverance, for he had explored 

 the whole country on foot without the guidance of previous observers or the 

 aid of fellow labourers, and had succeeded in throwing into natural divisions 

 the whole complicated series of British rocks. D'Aubisson, a distinguished 

 pupil of Werner, paid a just tribute of praise to this remarkable performance, 

 deserving that " what many celebrated mineralogists had only accomplished 

 for a small part of Germany in the course of half a century, had been effected 

 by a single individual for the whole of England."^ 



After the publication of Smith's works a host of talented men entered 

 the field of Geology, and the science at once, from a mass of crude undigested 

 materials, fanciful theories and conjectural particulars, sprang up into a 

 vigorous and well organized existence, comprising almost every branch of 

 knowledge ; the superbly interesting nature of its details soon attracted an 

 eager crowd of the best labourers from every other department of learning, 

 and in the short period of fifty years it has become what it is now, almost 

 unequalled, either for the profusion and excellence of the literature it htus 

 called forth, or for the grandeur of the terrestrial history it has rescued 

 from oblivion. 



Having now glanced at some of the more important features of the his- 

 tory of Geology, let us next proceed to examine the order in which the 

 various formations, with their included organic remains, are laid upon each 



» 



* Ly ell's Principles of Peology, 8th ed., page 60. 



