WILLIAM SMITH. 259 



collection contained relics of its age of accumu- 

 lation ; and that there has been a succession of 

 animals and plants on the earth foreshadowing 

 those that now exist. 



One day, after dining together at the house of 

 the Rev. Joseph Townsend, it was proposed by 

 one of this triumvirate, that a tabular view of the 

 main features of the subject, as it had been ex- 

 pounded by Mr. Smith, and verified and enriched 

 by their joint labours, should be drawn up in writ- 

 ing. Richardson held the pen, and wrote down, 

 from Smith's dictation, the different strata accord- 

 ing to their order of succession in descending order, 

 commencing with the chalk, and numbered, in 

 continuous series, down to the coal, below which 

 the strata were not sufficiently determined, accord- 

 ing to the scheme already noticed. 



To this description of the strata was added, in 

 the proper places, a list of the most remarkable 

 fossils which had been gathered in the several 

 layers of rock. The names of these fossils were 

 principally supplied by Mr. Richardson, and are 

 such as were then, and for a long time afterwards, 

 familiarly employed in the many collections near 

 Bath. Of the document thus jointly arranged each 

 person present took a copy, under no stipulation as 

 to the use which should be made of it, and accord- 

 ingly it was extensively distributed, and remained 

 for a long period the type and authority for the 

 descriptions and order of superposition of the strata 

 near Bath. 



