v William Smitlis Table of Strata 231 



so valuable a discovery universally known, I without 

 reserve gave a card of the English strata to Baron Kosen- 

 crantz, Dr. Miiller of Christiania, and many others, in the 

 year 1801." * 



The card of the English strata referred to in this letter 

 was a tabular list of the formations from the Coal up to 

 the Chalk, with the thicknesses of the several members, 

 an enumeration of some of their characteristic fossils, and 

 a synopsis of their special lithological peculiarities and 

 scenery. This table was drawn up in triplicate by Mr. 

 Eichardson, at Smith's dictation, in the year 1799, each of 

 the friends and Mr. Townsend taking a copy. Smith's 

 copy was presented by him to the Geological Society of 

 London in 1831. 



Though not actually published, this table obtained 

 wide publicity. It showed that the fundamental prin- 

 ciples of stratigraphy had been worked out by William 

 Smith alone, and independently, before the end of last 

 century. Had it been printed and sold it would have 

 established his claim to priority beyond all possibility of 

 cavil. But even without this technical support, his place 

 among the pioneers of stratigraphy cannot be gainsaid. 



Notwithstanding the abundant professional employ- 

 ment which he obtained, Smith never abounded in money. 

 So keenly desirous was he to complete his investigation 

 of the distribution of the strata of England, for the purpose 

 of constructing a map of the country, that he spent as 

 freely as he gained, walking, riding, or posting in direc- 

 tions quite out of the way of his business. " Having thus 

 emptied his pockets for what he deemed a public object, he 



1 Memoirs, p. 31. 



