236 The Founders of Geology LECT. 



ately the stone, on the continuance and quality of which 

 the whole success of the enterprise rested, failed. It 

 became necessary to sell the property, and thereafter 

 the sanguine engineer was left with a load of debt under 

 which most men would have succumbed. Struggling 

 under this blow, he was first compelled to part with his 

 collections of fossils, which were acquired by the Govern- 

 ment and placed in the British Museum. Next he found 

 himself no longer able to bear the expense of the house in 

 London which he had occupied for fifteen years. Not 

 only so, but hard fate drove him to sell all his furniture, 

 books and other property, keeping only the maps, sections, 

 drawings and piles of manuscript which were so precious 

 in his own eyes, but for which nobody would have been 

 likely to give him anything. For seven years he had no 

 home, but wandered over the north of England, wherever 

 professional engagements might carry him. His income 

 was diminished and fluctuating, yet even under this cloud 

 of trial he retained his quiet courage and his enthusiasm 

 for geological exploration. 



That a man of Smith's genius should have been allowed 

 to remain in this condition of toil and poverty has been 

 brought forward as a reproach to his fellow-countrymen. 

 It may be doubted, however, whether a man of his strong 

 independence of character would have accepted any pecuni- 

 ary assistance, so long as he could himself gain by his own 

 exertions a modest though uncertain income. It is not 

 that his merits were unrecognized in England, though 

 perhaps the appreciation of them was tardier than it might 

 have been. In 1818 a full and generous tribute to his 

 merits was written by Fitton, and appeared in the Edin- 



