272 Dr. Fitton's Notes on the History of English Geology. 



of the volume, especially the cliapter ' on the Structure of 

 Derbyshire and other parts of England,' abundant proofs of 

 the author's acuteness and fidelity as an observer. His state- 

 ments, indeed, concur precisely with those of Mr. Michell; 

 ' the arrangement of the strata being such,' he tells us, ' that 

 ' they invariably follow each other, as it were, in alphabetical 

 ' order, or as a series of numbers. I do not mean to insinuate 

 ' that the strata are alike in all the different regions of the 

 ' earth, 'with respect to thickness or quality—for experience shows 

 ' the contrary ; but that m each particular part, how much so- 

 ' ever they may differ, yet they follow each other in a regular 



* succession*.' — ' It was my intention,' he says in another place, 



* to have deposited specimens of each stratum, with its pro- 



* ductions, in the British Museum, arranged in the same order 



* above each other as they are in the earth ; being persuaded 

 ' that such a plan would convey a more perfect idea of sub- 



* terraneous geography, and of the various bodies inclosed in 



* the earth, than words or lines can possibly express f .' But 

 it is remarkable that Whitehurst, at the close of his work, 

 appears to dwell with much more pleasure on that part which 

 relates to the early ages of the world, and the condition of its 

 antediluvian inhabitants, ' who slept away their time in sweet 

 ' repose upon the ever vex'dant turf,' than upon the truly im- 

 portant and substantial part of his performance. 



The most direct instance that we have met with, of the ac- 

 tual tracing the course of any of the strata in England, before the 

 commencement of Mr. Smith's investigations, occurs in the ce- 

 lebrated work of Smeaton on the Eddystone Lighthouse J; and 

 it affords an excellent proof of the practical benefit to be de- 

 rived from geological inquiries. Mr. Smeaton was in want of 

 lime which possessed the property of forming a good cement 

 for works exposed to the sea; and finding the lime afforded 

 by the lias limestone at Aberthaw, on the coast of Glamor- 

 ganshire, to answer his purpose §, he was led to seek for stone 

 of the same qualities in other places. This he found, in the 

 first instance at Watchet, on the Somersetshire coast, ' where 



* all agreed, that they were the very same stratum of lias lime- 



• Whitehurst, Second Edition, pp. 178, 179. 



t Pages 204, 205. — Tliis project has since been executed'; Government 

 having, in 1806, purchased, for the British Museum, Mr. Smith's collection 

 of fossils, arranged according to the order of the strsita : — an acquisition 

 certainly of the highest interest in the scientific annals of our country, and 

 deserving a most distinguished place in a great national repository. 



% London, folio, 1791. Sections 168-190, &c. In the Introduction it 

 is stated that the book was printed in 178G. 



§ The best cement was found to be a compound of equal parts of blue- 

 lias lime and puzzolano. 



