WILLIAM SMITH 243 



was well "up to date," and we are impressed on reading 

 it with the great advance which had been made since the 

 time of Plot. 



Here must be mentioned the name of William Smith, 

 a native of Oxfordshire, though not a member of this 

 University. His various works were published between 

 the years 1790 and 1815, and to him we owe a discovery 

 that excited no controversy, but which nevertheless was 

 the greatest made in our subject since the time of Steno. 

 It was, that different strata contain different kinds of 

 fossils, which are peculiar to them, and thus serve as 

 marks by which the strata can be identified ; so that 

 with the aid of fossils it has become possible to trace the 

 same group of strata across the length of the British 

 Isles, nay, even throughout the whole of Europe and 

 into distant parts of the world. This discovery made 

 historical geology for the first time possible as an exact 

 science. 



The successor to Dr. Kidd was a geologist of the very 

 highest rank, one eminently great amongst a crowd of 

 great contemporaries. I allude to the famous Dr. 

 Buckland. 



The period of Buckland has been styled, and justly 

 styled, the " Golden Age of Geology." Sedgwick was 

 his contemporary in Cambridge, Phillips, afterwards to 

 succeed him, was his contemporary in Dublin, Murchison 

 learnt his first lesson in the field from him, Lyell was 

 his pupil, Agassiz a coadjutor, and Conybeare his nearest 

 friend. 



When Buckland was appointed Reader in Geology, the 

 foundations of the science were already laid, but great 

 problems remained for solution. The question of the 

 deluge and how far its effects could be recognised in the 

 structure of the earth's crust was still one of these. 



Buckland appeared at first as a champion of the deluge : 



