50 COimECTION OF BATH WITH THE 



own tirae. Look into the encyclopaedias and diction- 

 aries published twenty years ago, and the word is hardly 

 to be found, nor any of the innumerable terms which 

 now form its extensive vocabulary. Observe, too, 

 how many persons in every part of the kingdom are 

 now engaged in the study of this science, and you 

 will see something of the importance in which it is 

 now regarded. The pecuhar disposition of the strata 

 in this neighbourhood gave the first hint. I wish 

 I could add that it was a native, or at least a resident, 

 who first observed it. That honour was reserved for 

 a humble and very modest man, an engineer, named 

 William Smith, who had been brought to Bath for 

 the temporary purpose of superintending the exca- 

 vations necessary in constructing the Coal Canal. 

 There had been before his time a Mr. Wolcot, who 

 had collected the various fossils which are to be 

 found in the vicinity of Bath, and who had published 

 delineations of them ; but Smith was the first to 

 observe how each layer has its own peculiar fossils, 

 and how the dispositions of the strata have coincided 

 with the dispositions in other portions of the island. 

 This was the first spark — this an original and grand 

 discovery. The whole science of geology, which has 

 opened so many new and curious views, is the mag- 

 nificent result. 



Smith observed, and in part systematized; but in 



