Dr. Fitton's lioies on the. Historic of English Geology. \ 5 1 



* species of fossil shells may serve as new and more distinctive 

 ' marks of the identity of most of the strata of England *.' Novk^, 

 upon these points we shall observe— 1st, That we do believe 

 Mr. Smith to have been led by his own observations to the 

 discovery of the doctrines and facts which are claimed for him 

 by Mr. Farey. But, 2ndly, It is equally certain, that a very 

 near approach had been made by preceding writers to the 

 doctrines maintained by Mr. Smith upon the subject of strati- 

 fication ; and, more especially, as to the possibility of deducing 

 distmctive characters of the strata from their organized con- 

 tents :— though it is only candid to allow, that the passages 

 which bear upon these points might possibly have slept much 

 longer m the volumes which contain them, if the attention ex- 

 cited by Mr. Smith's publications had not led to their detec- 

 tion ; and that the light in which they now appear to us is very 

 different from what it would have been without such assistance. 

 Srdly, That Mr. Smith deserves, undoubtedly, the credit of 

 having first conceived, and actually executed, with extraor- 

 dinary devotion, the project of tracing the strata entirely across 

 this island; and of having thus established upon positive evi- 

 dence, principles till then (at the utmost) considered rather as 

 probable than as true. It is therefore very far from our in- 

 tention, in the subjoined sketch of the progress of opinion and 

 discovery respecting the newer and more regularly stratified 

 portion of the globe, to detract from the great merit of Mr. 

 Smith's investigations ; or to impeach, if we may be allowed 

 the expression, his consciousness of discovery: our sole object 

 being to found the history of this subject, upon what we think 

 must be regarded as the only safe and tangible standard in 

 the chronology of science,— the relative order of publication f. 



The French Encyclopedie Methodique contains, under the 

 article Physical Geography, published in 1796, by the late 

 M. Desmarestij:, a full account of some of the principal publi- 

 cations upon that subject, to the middle of the last century; 

 from whence may be obtained some valuable facts, diluted 

 very plentifully with speculation about the primeval state of 

 the globe. But, on the whole, these volumes have not much 

 increased our respect for the geologists of the last two cen- 

 turies ; and we can select from the list of philosophers whom , 

 they enumerate, the names of a few only who have given any- 

 thing substantial to the science of geology. It is only fair to 



• Phil. Mag. vol. li. p. i;.*?, &c. TudnJaib \(li/<Jf«9D ' 

 t [In this and some other paragraphs, in which additidnsTisfV^beetf hrttfl^ ' 



to the original paper, the style of the Review has been preserved, to avoid 

 the necessity of changing the form of the whole.] 

 X Encyd. Method., iSeogr. Physique, torn. U . 



