258 HEROES OF SCIENCE. 



taking some field examinations to determine the 

 truth of these assertions, and having interested in 

 the object a new and learned associate, the Rev. 

 Joseph Townsend (author of " Travels in Spain "), 

 they at once executed the project. Among other 

 places visited with this view was the detached hill 

 on which Dundry Church is conspicuously elevated. 

 From its form and position in respect of the lias 

 of Keynsham, Mr. Smith had inferred that this hill 

 was capped by the lowest of the Bath " freestones " 

 (inferior oolite) ; and, from his general views, he 

 expected to find in that rock the fossils which the 

 freestones contained near Bath ; that is to say, on 

 the westward rise, which he believed to affect all 

 the strata near Bath above the coal. It is needless 

 now to say, that examination confirmed both the 

 inference of the character of the rock and the con- 

 formity of its organic contents. The effect of this 

 and other illustrations of the reality of Mr. Smith's 

 speculations was decisive. In general literature, 

 and especially in natural history, Mr. Smith was 

 immeasurably surpassed by his friends, but they 

 acknowledged that, from his labours in a different 

 quarter, a new light had begun to manifest itself 

 in the previously dark horizon of geology, and 

 they set themselves earnestly to make way for its 

 auspicious influence. 



What a step was made from the old ideas that 

 fossils were sports of nature to the proof that 

 during the long ages of the earth's history every 

 deposit of river mud, sea-shore sand, and marine 



