

SMITH. 109 



from the knowledge he had acquired, to inform the contractors what 

 would be the nature of the ground to be cut through, and what 

 parts of the canal would require particular care to be kept water- 

 tight. He also discovered, during the formation of this work, that 

 each stratum contained organised fossils peculiar to itself, by ex- 

 amination of which, it might in cases otherwise doubtful be recog- 

 nised and discriminated from others like it, but in a different part of 

 the series. This fact was subsequently still further investigated by 

 him, and he proved that whatever stratum was found in any part of 

 England, the same remains would be found in it and no other. 



Mr. Smith was now (1795) twenty-six years old, and at this 

 period removed from the village of High Littleton to Bath, in the 

 vicinity of which city he shortly afterwards purchased a small but 

 beautiful estate. In the following year he first contemplated pub- 

 lishing his discoveries in geology, but it was not until the year 

 1799, after his engagement with the Coal Canal Company had ceased, 

 that he made public his intention of publishing a work on the Stra- 

 tification of Britain, and prosecuting an actual survey of the Geolo- 

 gical structure of England and Wales. About this time he became 

 acquainted with the Rev. Benjamin Richardson and the Rev. Jos. 

 Townsend, two gentlemen thoroughly competent to estimate the 

 truth and value of his views, and who, in conjunction with him, 

 drew up a tabular statement of the order of the strata, with their 

 imbedded organic remains, in the vicinity of Bath. Copies of this 

 document were extensively distributed, and it remained for a long 

 period the type and authority for the descriptions and order of the 

 superposition of the strata near Bath. The original document, in 

 Mr. Richardson's handwriting, drawn up from Smith's dictation, 

 was presented to the Geological Society in 1831. Mr. Smith now 

 turned all his energies to the prosecution of his profession, and the 

 tracing out the courses of the strata through districts as remote 

 from Bath as his means would permit. In 1799 an unusual amount 

 of rain prevailed, producing in the neighbourhood of Bath an extra- 

 ordinary phenomenon. Vast mounds of earth, displaced by the 

 augmented force of the springs and the direction of water into new 

 channels below the surface, were sliding down the sides of the hills, 

 bearing away with them houses, trees, lawns, and fields. To remedy 

 such disasters and prevent their recurrence was exactly what Smith 

 had learnt from Geology, and many operations of this kind were 

 placed under his care and successfully accomplished. His reputation 

 for success in draining on new principles became established, carry- 

 ing him into Gloucestershire, the Isle of Purbeck, Wiltshire, &c., 

 and for the next few years he was almost daily occupied in various 

 parts of the country, first in draining land, and secondly in irriga- 

 ting it when drained. In 1801 he accomplished the effectual drainage 

 of Prisley Bog, a work which had often been attempted before, 

 but without success. Mr. Smith thoroughly deprived the bog of its 



