CHAPTER XI. 



THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SMITH. 



The succession of the strata recognized — Strata known by their 

 fossils, position, and mineral contents — England surveyed by 

 Smith and made the type of the results of the succession of 

 changes studied by geology. 



The ancestors of William Smith were a race of 

 farmers who owned small tracts of land, and had 

 been settled in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire 

 for many generations. 



William Smith was born at Churchill, a village 

 in Oxfordshire, on the 23rd of March, 1769, the 

 year which gave birth to Cuvier. Of his parents 

 he always spoke with great regard, but there is 

 little in the recollections which he has preserved of 

 them, to show in what degree they contributed to 

 form his remarkable character. His father he 

 described as " a very ingenious mechanic," and men- 

 tions as the cause of his death a severe cold caught 

 while engaged in the erection of some machinery. 

 Deprived of this parent before he was eight years 



