346 



NATURE 



S^Augttst II, 1887 



having become, in the course of 120 years, commingled 

 with the far more numerous and later Eocene Tertiary 

 acquisitions, and so have lost their connexion with this 

 admirable memoir. The engravings of the shells are 

 equal to any modern published work descriptive of the 

 fossils of the Eocene formation ; but the names given by 

 Dr. Solander are in many, instances incorrect, according 

 to our present knowledge of the genera of Mollusca. 



The next series to which attention may be directed 

 is the collection of Dr. William Smith. This collection, 

 which was commenced about the year 1787, was pur- 

 chased by the Trustees in 1816, a supplemental collection 

 being added by Dr. Smith in 181 8. 



It is remarkable as the first attempt made to identify 

 the various strata forming the solid crust of England and 

 Wales by means of their fossil remains. There had been 

 other and earlier collections of fossils, but to William 

 Smith is due the credit of being the first to show that 

 each bed of chalk or sandstone, limestone or clay, is 

 marked by its own special organisms, and that these can 

 be relied upon as characteristic of such stratum, wherever 

 it is met with, over very wide areas of country. 



The fossils contained in this cabinet were gathered 

 together by William Smith in his journeys over all parts 

 of England during thirty years, whilst occupied in his 

 business as a land surveyor and engineer, and were used 

 to. illustrate his works, " Strata Identified by Organized 

 Fossils," with coloured plates, quarto (1816; four parts 

 only published) : and his " Stratigraphical System of 

 Organized Fossils" (quarto, 1817). 



A coloured copy of his large geological map, the first 

 geological map of England and Wales, with a part of 

 Scotland, commenced in 1812 and published in 1815 — 

 size 8 feet 9 inches by 6 feet 2 inches wide, engraved by 

 John Cary — is exhibited in the last wall-case on the right- 

 hand side of this gallery, at the north end. It is well 

 worthy of careful inspection. 



William Smith was born at Churchill, a village of Ox- 

 fordshire, in 1769 ; he was the son of a small farmer and 

 mechanic of the same name, but his father died when he 

 was only eight years old, leaving him to the care of his 

 uncle, who acted as his guardian. William's uncle did 

 not approve of the boy's habit of collecting stones 

 (" pundibs " = TerebratiilcB, and " quoit-stones " = Clypejcs 

 sinuatus) ; but seeing that his nephew was studious, he 

 gave him a little money to buy books. By means of these 

 he taught himself the rudiments of geometry and land- 

 surveying, and at the age of eighteen he obtained 

 employment as a land surveyor in Oxfordshire, Gloucester- 

 shire, and other parts, and had already begun carefully 

 and systematically to collect fossils and to observe the 

 structure of the rocks. In 1793 he was appointed to 

 survey the course of the intended Somersetshire Coal- 

 Canal,' near Bath. For six years he was the resident 

 engineer of the canal, and, applying his previously- 

 acquired knowledge, he was enabled to prove that the 

 strata from the new red marl (Trias) upwards followed 

 each other in a regular and orderly succession, each bed 

 being marked by its own characteristic fossils, and having 

 a general tendency or "dip" to the south-ea;t. 



To verify his theory he travelled in subsequent years 

 over the greater part of England and Wales, and made 

 careful observations of the geological succession of the 

 rocks, proving also, by the fossils obtained, the identity 

 of the strata over very wide areas along their outcrops. 



His knowledge of fossils advanced even further, for he 

 discovered that those in situ retained their sharpness, 

 whereas the same specimens derived from the drifts or 

 gravel-deposits were usually rounded and water-worn, and 

 had reached their present site by subsequent erosion of 

 the parent-rock. 



In 1799, William Smith circulated in MS. the order of 

 succession of the strata and embedded organic remains 

 found in the vicinity of Bath. His large geological map 



of England and Wales is dated 1815. On June i, 

 1816, he published his "Strata Identified by Organized 

 Fossils," with illustrations of the most characteristic 

 specimens in each stratum (4to). In 1817 he printed 

 " A Stratigraphical System of Organized Fossils," com- 

 piled from the original geological collection deposited in 

 the British Museum (4to). In 1 819, he published a reduc- 

 tion of his great geological map, together with several 

 sections across England. Thesehave just been presented 

 to the Museum by Mr. Wm. Topley. 



Mr. Smith received the award of the first Wollaston 

 Medal and fund in 1831, from the hands of Prof. Sedgwick, 

 the President of the Geological Society, "as a great 

 original discoverer in English geology, and especially for 

 his having been the first, in this country, to discover and 

 teach the identification of strata, and to determine their 

 succession by means of their embedded fossils." 



In June 1832, the Government of H.M. King William 

 the Fourth awarded Mr. Smith a pension of ^100 a year, 

 but he only enjoyed it for seven years, as he died August 

 28, 1839. In 1835, the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon 

 Mr. Smith by the Provost and Fellows of Trinity College, 

 Dublin. The highest compliment paid him was that by 

 Sedgwick, who rightly named him " the Father of English. 

 Geology." 



The bust above the case which contains William 

 Smith's collection is a copy of that by Chantry surmount- 

 ing the tablet to his memory in the beautiful antique 

 church of .•\11 Saints at Northampton, where his remains 

 lie buried. 



We come next to a collection, the very name of which 

 betrays the antiquity of its origin. It is known as 

 ■' Sowerby's Mmeral Conchology." 



This collection was begun by Mr. James Sowerby, 

 prior to 1812, and continued by his son, Mr. James de 

 Carle Sowerby, during the preparation of their great 

 work entitled, " The Mineral Conchology of Great 

 Britain," which appeared in parts, between June 181 2 

 and December 1845, and forms six volumes octavo, 

 illustrated with 648 plates. 



The value of the work consists in the fidelity and 

 accuracy of the figures given, and also in the fact 

 that most of the specimens drawn are here named and 

 described for the first time. They comprise fossils from 

 all parts of England and from every geological formation. 

 The small green labels mark the specimens actually 

 figured in the work. The collection was purchased by 

 the Trustees from Mr. J.de Carle Sowerby, January 1861. 

 It may be interesting to record that many of the later 

 parts were illustrated by plates drawn by the late Mr. 

 J. W. Salter, for so many years paleontologist to the 

 Geological Survey. When a youth, Salter was ap- 

 prenticed to Mr. J. de Carle Sowerby, who was at that 

 time both a naturalist and an engraver. The youthful 

 apprentice afterwards married his master's daughter, and 

 became, as is well known, one of the most brilliant 

 palaeontologists in this country. 



Another curious but small series represents the " types " 

 or " figured specimens " of " Konig's Icottes Fossiliuin 

 Sec tiles." 



This illustrated work, on miscellaneous fossils in the 

 British Museum, was prepared by Mr. Charles Konig, 

 the first Keeper of the Mineralogical and Geological 

 Department, after its separation from the general Natura" 

 History Collections in 1825. 



The engravings are rough, but characteristic, and tl 

 first " century" (or 100 figures of fossils), is accompanie<j 

 by descriptions ; the plates of the second " century " havl 

 names only, but no descriptions are published with thai: 



A far more important collection is that known as " Tl: 

 Gilbertson Collection." 



In 1836, Prof. John Phillips pubhshed Vol. II. of 

 " Illustrations of the Geology of Yorkshire," which 

 devoted to the " Mountain Limestone District." In tl 



