WILLIAM SMITH. 243 



men well acquainted with coal-working, and they 

 willingly stayed to inspect every new invention 

 applied to canals and collieries ; but Mr. Smith's 

 treasured object of consideration on the road, that 

 which occupied all his thoughts in the intervals of 

 professional inquiries, was the aspect and structure 

 of the country passed through, in order to deter- 

 mine if his preconceived generalizations of a settled 

 order of succession, continuity of range at the 

 surface, and general declination eastward, were true 

 on a large scale. 



It is needless now to say that his general views 

 were justified ; he found the strata from the vicinity 

 of Bath and Bristol prolonged into the north of 

 England, in the same general order of succession 

 with the general eastward dip. There is, however, 

 one part of the conclusions adopted in this rapid 

 survey from a postchaise, which merits particular 

 attention. He passed through York on the high 

 road to Newcastle, and saw at a distance of from 

 five to fifteen miles to the east the hills of chalk 

 and oolite. He was satisfied of their nature by 

 their contours and relative position, and by their 

 position on the surface in relation to the lias and 

 " red ground " occasionally seen on the road. This 

 is, in fact, the only authority he could rely upon for 

 drawing, in 1800, the continuations of the chalk of 

 Wiltshire, and the oolite of Somersetshire, through 

 the eastern parts of Yorkshire, but he drew them 

 with a considerable approximation to accuracy. 

 Engaged for six years in setting out and super- 



