112 HISTORY OF GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY. 



without the encouragement and sympathy of colleagues in the 

 study which he loved, his own unflinching determination, 

 noble enthusiasm, and remarkable insight enabled him to 

 elucidate the structure of his native land with such clearness 

 and accuracy that no important alteration has had to be made 

 in his work. Smith confined himself to the empirical 

 investigation of his country, and was never tempted into 

 general speculations about the history of formation of the 

 earth. His greatness is based upon this wise restraint and 

 the steady adherence to his definite purpose; to these 

 qualities, the modest, self-sacrificing, and open-hearted student 

 of nature owes his well-deserved reputation as the " Father of 

 English Geology." 



Soon after their publication, Smith's researches were 

 productive of results which he could never have anticipated. 

 It was found that the strata described by him from the Lias 

 to the Purbeck horizons filled the great gap between the 

 Muschelkalk and the Cretaceous formations in Werner's 

 system. European geology was thus enriched by the accurate 

 knowledge of an important series of fossiliferous geological 

 horizons, and the equivalents of the English Lias, Cornbrash, 

 Portland and Purbeck series were sought for and discovered 

 in various parts of Europe. 



George Greenough, 1 the founder of the Geological Society of 

 London, published a geological map of England and Wales 

 in 1819, soon after the appearance of W. Smith's. The 

 topographical groundwork and technical workmanship of 



1 George Bellas Greenough, born 1778, at first studied law at Cambridge 

 and Gottingen, but under Blumenbach's guidance turned to natural science, 

 and afterwards studied mineralogy and geognosy with Werner in Freiberg ; 

 travelled in Germany and Italy; became a Member of Parliament in 1807, 

 and in the same year, on November I3th, founded the Geological Society 

 of London ; died 1855 in Naples. The Geological Society has exer- 

 cised a strong and favourable influence upon the development of geology 

 in England. The aim in founding the Society was to unite all the English 

 geologists, and to keep alive and encourage the interest in. geology by the 

 regular publication of memoirs, Transactions, and shorter reports of the 

 communications made at the meetings. The first of six volumes of Trans- 

 actions appeared in 1811. Much later, in 1845, the Transactions, published 

 in quarto form, were replaced by the Quarterly Joiirnal, fifty-two volumes 

 of which have now been published, and have upheld the high quality 

 of the Society's publications. Mr. Greenough, the first President of the 

 Society, helped very considerably to supply the means for endowment of 

 the Geological Society. 



