Dr. Fitton's Notes on the History of English Geology. 447 



About fifty years after Lister's project for a geological map, 

 a work was published, under the title of ' A new Philosophico- 

 ' chorographical Chart of East Kent, invented and delineated 

 ' by Christopher Packe, M.D.,' which is one of the most 

 valuable contributions to the physical geography of England 

 that has appeared. It was preceded by a letter to the Royal 

 Society, and accompanied by a Tract of greater length*, ex- 

 plauiing the purpose of the work ; which, from the author's 

 frequent employment of anatomical terms, seems to have 

 been suggested by his professional studies. The map it- 

 self represents, on a scale of rather more than an inch and 

 half to a mile, a circle of about two and thirty miles round 

 Canterbury: the principal object being, as the title of the 

 Tract imports, to represent the course and connexions of the 

 valleys, all of which are described with great minuteness of 

 detail, — their ramifications being compared to those of the 

 veins in the human body. As the greater number of these 

 valleys are at present without streamlets, it is inferred that 

 they were formed not by existing causes, but by the retirino- 

 watei'S of the Deluge; and that the surface since that event 

 has undergone no change. There is no allusion to stratifica- 

 tion either in the map or the memoir; but the natural fea- 

 tures of the country are very correctly distinguished, and 

 divisions pointed out, which correspond with those of the pre- 

 sent day: — the first including the chalk district; the second, 

 under the name of ' stone hills,' the ridge of the lower o-reen- 

 sand; — between which and the chalk range, the vale occupied 

 by the gault is also clearly indicated: — and the 'clay-hills,' 

 constituting a third division, occupy the valley of the Weald. 

 Nothing can be better than the general plan upon which the 

 author proceeded ; more perfect execution only, having been 

 wanting to render his map complete : and he' seems himself 

 to have had a just sense both of the importance of his under- 

 taking, and of the true mode of accomplishing it. — ' For this,' 

 he says, ' is no dream or devise, the offspring of a sportive 



* or enthusiastical imagination, conceived and produced for 



» The title is ' ArKOrPA<I>rA, sivc Convallium Descriptio; in which 

 ' are briefly, but fully, expounded the Origine, Cause, and Insertion, Ex- 



* tent, Elevation, and Congruity, of all the Valleys :ind Ilills, Brooks and 

 ' Rivers; as an Explanation of a new Piiilosophico-chorographical Chart of 

 ' East Kent. Canterbury, 174.'5.' 



This Tract, which everywhere siiows the patriotism of the author, and 

 his enthusiasm about his subject, contains some very amusing passages. 

 He rejects indignantly the title of ' Map ' for his performance ; ' there 

 ' being,' he asserts,' as manifest a difference between tliis chart and a map, 

 'as there is between the frame of any building, and the same finished into 

 ' a complete liouse, adorned with all its furniture.' 



