U& ©r>Fkton's Notes on the Hhtoty' of English Gcolog^i^ 



a well-known book of travels in Spain ; and subsequently to 

 Mr. Farey, who was at that time we believe his pupil ; two 

 gentlemen who must, in fact, be considered as the chief editors 

 of his opinions. The title of the book in which Mr. Town^ 

 send has given an account of Mr. Smith's discoveries, " TH^ 

 Character of Moses established for Veracity as an Historian*, 

 was certainly not calculated to attract the attention of geolo- 

 gists, and has apparently very little connexion with the stra? 

 tification of England; but the ingenious author conceived th|' 

 credibility of the Mosaic account of the creation, to derive im- 

 portant support from the existing appearances of the globe jf 

 and, for the purpose of illustrating those appearances, he hai^ 

 entered into a full description of the British strata. He prOr' 

 fesses however, very candidly, to have obtained his know- 

 ledge of the subject almost entirely from Mr. Smith ; of whom, 

 after stating that, with a view to the completion of his own 

 work, he had lost no opportunity of conversing with foreign 

 mineralogists of eminence, he thus expresses his opinion : — 



' The discoveries of this skilful engineer have been of va^ 

 'importance to geology, and will be of infinite value to thii^ 



* nation. To a strong understanding, a retentive memory, in- 



* defatigable ardour, and more than common sagacity, this ex- 

 ' traordinary man unites a perfect contempt for money, wheii 



* compared with science. Had he kept his discoveries to him- 



* self, he might have accumulated wealth ; but, with unparal- 



* leled disinterestedness of mind, he scorned concealment, and 

 ' made known his discoveries to every one who wished for in- 

 ' formation. It is now (1813) eleven years since he conducted 



* the author in his examination of the strata which are laid 



* bare in the immediate vicinity of Bath ; and subsequent ex- 



* cursions in the stratified and calcareous portion of our island 



* have confirmed the information thus obtained f.' ", 



Mr. Farey, the other person above mentioned, who is him- 

 self a geologist of no inconsiderable merit, has not confined 

 himself to the diffusion of Mr. Smith's opinions; but has very 

 strenuously asserted the claims of his preceptor, not merely 

 to having actually traced and demonstrated the order of ther ' 

 strata in England, and devised for their discrimination a num- ' 

 ber of subordinate distinctions, to which we believe his titl6.^ 

 cannot be disputed ; but to his having been the first to ascer-;"* 

 tain * that the fossil productions of the strata are not acci- 

 ' dentally distributed therein, but that each particular species 



* has its proper and invariable place in some particular stratuni; 



* and to having proved that some one pr two, or more, of these j 



* Two vols. 4to. 181.3-1815, Bath anil London (Longman).,. . r 

 t Townsend, vol. i. Introduction, [ip. 4, 5. 



