SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY. 547 



that of this island 1 ." So remarkable a truth, thus 

 collected from a copious collection of particulars 

 by a patient induction, was an important step in 

 the science. 



These general facts now began to be commonly 

 recognized, and followed into detail. Stukeley the 

 antiquary 2 (1724), remarked an important feature 

 in the strata of England, that their escarpments, or 

 steepest sides, are turned towards the west and 

 north-west; and Strachey 3 (1719), gave a stratigra- 

 phical description of certain coal-mines near Bath 4 . 

 Michell, appointed Woodwardian Professor at Cam- 

 bridge in 1762, described this stratified structure of 

 the earth far more distinctly than his predecessors, 

 and pointed out, as the consequence of it, that " the 

 same kinds of earths, stones, and minerals, will 

 appear at the surface of the earth in long parallel 

 slips, parallel to the long ridges of mountains ; and 

 so, in fact, we find them 5 ." 



Michell (as appeared by papers of his which 

 were examined after his death) had made himself 

 acquainted with the series of English strata which 

 thus occur from Cambridge to York ; that is, from 

 the chalk to the coal. These relations of position 

 required that geological maps, to complete the 



1 Natural History of the Earth, 1723. 



2 Itinerarium Curiosum, 1724. 



3 Phil. Trans. 1719, and Observations on Strata, $c. 1729. 



4 Fitton, Annals of Philosophy, N.S. vol. i. and ii.(1832,3), 

 p. 157- ' Phil. Trans. 1760. 



NN2 



