174 Mr. Smith's Geological Claims stated. 



This meeting accordingly took place at the hour appointed, 

 and continued through several hours, before th« Stateraent (in 

 16 Items, and with as man)' Notes of Reference, for which now 

 J beg insertion in your Magazine,) was finally adjusted, as then 

 it was, and unanimously a][^roved by all present ; but neither 

 the gentleman who had first moved in this business, or any of 

 his friends who have been alluded to, came, or sent any apology 

 to this meeting ; and soon after, he ivent out of town, and no- 

 • thing since has, I believe, been heard from him or them on the 

 subject. 



Mr. Smith, after having again well considered the Stat?Tnent 

 mentioned, sent me an authentic copy of it, with Letters ex- 

 pressive of his entire approval and concurrence in it, and his wish 

 for its being published ; although, not then immediately, because 

 he had been persuaded, to first ask the signature of some of the 

 oldest, more respectable, or well known of his friends, by way of 

 sanction to it, with the public. 



It would be useless for me to occupy your pages in mention- 

 ing the various and opposite reasons, some of them, which dif- 

 ferent individuals assigned to Mr. S., as I have been told, for 

 not complying with the wish last mentioned ; although, all ex- 

 pressed their general approval of the Statement, and wish for its 

 being speedily published, just as it stood. This latter being also 

 the feeling, most unequivocally expressed, by several persons who 

 are amongst the be&t judges on this subject, to whom I have 

 since lent my authentic copy, I do not now hesitate to send yon, 

 a faithful transcript thevefrom ; and the insertion of which will 

 greatly oblige, Sir, 



Your obedient servant, 

 Howland-street, London, JoHN FareY Sen. 



Feb. 26, 1818. 



Mr.WiLUAM Smith's Claims (according to the Opinions of his 



Friends) to merit and originality, in regard to the Knowledge 



of the British Strata, may he hriefly stated as follow: viz. 



1st. Having, while employed in the under-ground surveys of 



Collieries, at and near High-Littleton, in 1790, and two or three 



following years, acquired a more intimate acquaintance with the 



facts of the Stratification, leneath the surface, and drawn more 



correct inferences therefrom, as to the necessary connection of 



the edges of these subficial Strata, with the Surface*, than were 



then current or known to the several coal-agents, over-lookers or 



working- colliers, in the vicinity 3 or than are even now (at more 



* An explicit notice of which was published by Mr. Farey on the 31st of 

 .Tunc 1806, in the Philosophical Magazine, vol. xxv. page 44 ; and with 

 fuller details on the "J^h of June 1811, in his Report to the Board of Agri- 

 cnltuie on Derbyshire, vol. i. p. 108, &c. and on numerous other occasions. 



than 



