A Yorkshire Rector of the Eighteenth Century. 13 



with just appreciation to his work, was under the belief that 

 from the time when he vacated the Woodwardian Chair, 

 Michell appeared ' to have been engaged in his clerical duties 

 and to have entirely discontinued his scientific pursuits.'* 

 The truth, however, is that far from abandoning science he 

 devoted his leisure to its cultivation more strenuously than ever. 

 Most of his achievements in physics and astronomy were 

 accomplished at his Yorkshire rectory. And even in regard to 

 geological matters, though he did not publish his observations, 

 there is proof that he continued to make them with his ac- 

 customed zeal vmtil near the close of his life. He kept up his 

 habit of noting on his journeys any fresh evidence as to the 

 stratigraphy of the districts across which he travelled. In 

 this way he succeeded in making out the broad general succession 

 of formations from the Coal of Yorkshire up to the Chalk. It 

 appears that about the year 1788 he communicated verbally 

 to his friend John Smeaton, the eminent engineer, an account 

 of what he had ascertained to be the sequence of the rocks in 

 the south, of England. This account, written down at the time 

 by Smeaton on the first bit of paper that came to hand, was 

 eventually published in the Philosophical Magazine for August, 

 1810. It ran as follows : — 



Yards. 

 Chalk ... ... ... ... ... 120 



Golt 50 



Sand 

 Sand of Bedfordshire ... ... ... 10 or 20 



•fNorthampton lime and Portland limes, 



lying in several strata ... ... 100 



Lyas strata 70 or loo 



Sand of Newark ... ... ... ... about 30 



Red Clay, of Tuxford, and several ... 100 



Sherwood Forest Pebbles and Gravel ... 50 unequal 

 Very fine and white sand ... ... uncertain 



Roch Abbey and Brotherton limes ... 100 



Coal strata of Yorkshire ... ... uncertain 



Only an experienced field geologist can appreciate the amount 

 of time and labour which the construction of this table involved, 

 and the wide extent of ground which must have been examined. 

 The key to the sequence of the formations furnished by organic 



* Principles of Geology, loth Edit., Vol. I., page 61. The illustrious 

 author of the Principles stated that Michell held the Woodwardian Pro- 

 fessorship for eight years. In actual fact, as already mentioned, his 

 tenure of the post was less than two years. 



t The Portland limestone of the Upper Oolites and the Northampton 

 limestone of the Inferior Oolites belong to different stratigraphical horizons, 

 but they both lie above the Lias. The Keuper and Bunter divisions of 

 the Trias are correctly placed above the Permian Magnesian Limestone. 



1918 Jan. 1. 



