PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 397 



various soils and their boundaries by colours. Unfortunately the scheme was 

 apparently not carried out until long after Lister's death. 



A paper on ' The Somersetshire Coal District ' was contributed to the 

 ' Philosophical Transactions ' in 1719, and was republished ten years later as 

 ' Observations on the Different Strata of Earth and Minerals, more particularly, 

 such as are found in the dial Klines of Great Britain." This is accompanied 

 by a carefully prepared section of some coal seams ten miles south-west of Bath. 

 Though two centuries old, it clearly indicates the order and composition of 

 the beds, their interruption by ridges [faults]; and the occurrence above the coal- 

 seams of freestone [Oolite] lias, and red marl, lying unconformably upon the 

 older beds. The author has some weird and wonderful theories to account for 

 his facts, but he gives a section .showing the proper relative order of the various 

 beds between the Chalk and the Carboniferous Rocks. 



' A new Philosophico-chorographical Chart of East Kent ' was ' invented and 

 delineated ' by Christopher Packe in 1743. It is now very, scarce, but there 

 is a copy in the library of the Geological Society of London. In this the valleys 

 and other physical features were shown, with the chalk districts, stone hills, 

 clay hills, etc. There is, however, no reference to stratification. Dr. Packe 

 was proud of his work. It was ' no dream or devi.se. the offspring of a 

 sportive or enthusiastical imagination, conceived and produced for want of 

 something else to do, at my leisure in my studj-, but it is a real' scheme, taken 

 upon the spot with patience and diligence, by frequent or rather continued 

 observations, in the course of my journeys of business through almost every 

 the minutest parcel of the country; digested at home with much consideration, 

 and composed with as much accuracy, as the observer w^s capable of.' 



John Woodward, in his 'Natural History of the Earth' (1723); Nicholas 

 Desmarest, in the ' Encyclopedie Methodique ' ; John Michel (1760), whose 

 work has recently been described by Sir Archibald Geikie ; John Whit^hurst, in 

 his ' Inquiry into the original State and Formation of the Earth ' ; .John 

 Snieaton. the engineer, in 1788; Prof. Jamieson ('Memoirs,' Wernerian Society), 

 1811; .Tames Parkinson ('Transactions,' Geological Societv), 1811, and other 

 early investigators have left evidence that they were familiar with the various 

 beds of the e-arth's surface, their relative positions, thickne.sses, and economic 

 contents. They were also aware of the various parts of the country in which 

 the different beds occurred. But none of them recorded that information on a 

 map or chart, although Prof. Jamieson got very near it; his paper being 'On 

 Colouring Geognostical !Maps,' but the enormous number of complicated signs 

 and symbols he suggested proved unsuitable for practical purposes, though there 

 were many good features in his colour-scheme. 



In the library of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, Whitehall, is a 

 very fine but incomplete series of the old county Agricultural Reports, These 

 were prepared upon a definite plan, for most, but not all, of the counties in 

 Great Britain, and principally date between 1790 and 1820. Occasionally two 

 or more editions were issued. In most of them is a coloured or shaded map of 

 the soils of the county. While these maps are usually but briefly described, 

 and sometimes not described at all, their great bearing upon the geological 

 features of the counties dealt with, together with their early dat«, make their 

 consideration of some importance. They are also of value as it is obvious that 

 thev were seen by William Smith, and considerably influenced him in his work 

 on his geological maps. The words used, e.g., brash, dunstone. freestone, etc.. 

 were also used by Smith. We know that he reeularlv attended the various meet- 

 ings of the Agricultural Societies, exhibited his draft geological maps there. 

 and, apparently, often bored his hearers by his talk on ' strata ' and ' organised 

 fossils.' ' Strata Smith ' was a man to be avoided at these sheep-shearins; 

 meetings, and we learn that on one occasion he was made aware that no one 

 Has paying any heed to his remarks, so he folded up his maps and brought his 

 discourse to an abrupt termination. Most of the maps in the Agricultural 

 Renorts were doubtless familiar to Smith ; his intimate knowledge of rocks and 

 their methods of disinteeration into soils enabled him to extract much geoloeical 

 information from the soil maps, and there can be little doubt that they consider- 

 ■••Hv assisted him in the preparation of his arreat geological map of England and 

 Wales of 1815. I have carefullv compared the soil maps of the areas which 



