WILLIAM SMITH 259 



to that hardy yeoman class, now, unfortunately, almost 

 extinct, which has contributed so much in the past to 

 the greatness of our land. Of school-teaching he had 

 but little, but his mind was busy at a very early age 

 over the fossils he picked up from his father's fields. At 

 the age of eighteen he had the good fortune to be appren- 

 ticed to a land surveyor and engineer, and thus acquired 

 a training as well adapted to the requirements of the field 

 geologist as the period could provide. His work took 

 him into the country, and afforded him excellent oppor- 

 tunities for observation. These he used to such good 

 purpose that by the time he had reached the age of 

 twenty-two he had already constructed a system of 

 geology for himself. He had discerned something of the 

 order which prevails among the secondary rocks of our 

 country, and had even discovered their discordant super- 

 position upon the underlying carboniferous system. 



The rage for constructing canals which prevailed in 

 England between the years 1791 and 1794 happened 

 rather fortunately for geology. The cutting of these 

 long trenches through the country afforded numerous 

 glimpses of its structure ; but though canals had often 

 enough been cut before, no William Smith had been 

 there to see them. Now the happy conjunction was 

 made, and his appointment to assist in the construction 

 of the Somerset coal canal was fertile in important 

 results. The year 1794 brought him further oppor- 

 tunities. He was invited to accompany as engineer two 

 members of a Government Commission which had been 

 appointed to investigate the English canals. He did so, 

 and travelled with them over nine hundred miles of 

 country, from Oxford through York to Newcastle, and 

 back again through Wales and Shropshire to Bath. At 

 the end of the journey Smith felt himself in possession 

 of the clue which was to lead him through all the in- 



