108 SMITH. 



early displayed taste for collecting specimens of the various stones 

 in the neighbourhood, young Smith with difficulty obtained money 

 for the purchase of a few books fit to instruct a boy in the rudi- 

 ments of geometry and surveying. He, however, continued to 

 prosecute these studies without instruction or sympathy, but still 

 with ardour and success until the year 1787, when, having attained 

 the age of eighteen, and being tolerably versed in the geometry 

 and calculations at that time thought sufficient for engineers and 

 surveyors, he became assistant to Mr. Edward Webb, pf Stow-on- 

 the-Wold, who had been appointed to make a complete survey of 

 the parish of Churchill. Being speedily entrusted with the manage- 

 ment of all the ordinary business of a surveyor, Mr. Smith traversed 

 in continual activity the counties of Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, 

 and Warwickshire, carefully noticing all the varieties of soil over 

 which he passed, and comparing them with the general aspect and 

 character of the country. Between the years 1791 and 1793, he 

 also made minute subterraneous surveys of the High Littleton 

 collieries, which afforded him an opportunity of confirming views 

 previously conceived as to the regularity in formation of the different 

 strata composing the earth's crust. At this period the services of 

 civil engineers were in great request, and the duties entrusted to 

 them were such as Mr. Smith was well qualified to perform. Several 

 gentlemen in the neighbourhood interested themselves in forward- 

 ing his professional career, and he obtained an engagement to make 

 surveys and levels for a proposed line of canal in Somersetshire. 

 In the course of these operations, Smith discovered that the strata 

 lying above coal were not laid horizontally, but inclined in one 

 direction viz., to the eastward; resembling on a large scale the 

 ordinary appearance of superposed slices of bread and butter. This 

 fact he had previously imagined to be the case, and it was now 

 proved to be true. 



In 1794 the Canal Bill on which he was engaged received the 

 sanction of Parliament, and one of the first steps taken by the com- 

 mittee of management was to depute two of their members to 

 accompany Mr. Smith, their engineer, on a tour of investigation as 

 to the construction and management of other navigations in England 

 and Wales. This journey extended altogether through 900 miles of 

 country, and occupied the space of one or two months ; the party 

 reached Newcastle by one route, and returned by another, through 

 Shropshire and Wales to Bath. During the whole tour Mr. Smith 

 seized every opportunity of observing all local peculiarities as to 

 the aspect and structure of the country passed through, and was 

 able to verify on a large scale his pre-conceived generalizations 

 regarding a settled order of succession, continuity of range at the 

 surface, and general declination eastward of the different strata. 

 During the next six years he was engaged in setting out and super- 

 intending the works on the Somersetshire coal canal ; being able, 



