402 CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 



In the Fourth Heport of the Scarborough Philosophical Society, for 1833, 

 there is a note ' that Mr. W. Smith has been kind enough to colour for the 

 Society Knox's excellent map of the Vicinity of Scarborough.' This map 

 could not be found at Scarborough, but on examining the maps in the possession 

 of the Geological iSociety at Burlington House recently, I found it there, signed 

 ' W. Smith, 1831.' How long it had been there, and how it got there at all, 

 no one knows. I should imagine that Phillips, once curator of the Museum 

 at Scarborough, later President of the Geological Society, had borrowed it! 

 At the same time I found a copy of each of two second editions of Smith's 

 county maps of Northumberland and Durham. These originally appeared in 

 his Geological atlas in 1824, but the second issues are dated 1831, and were 

 not previously known. 



In addition to his maps Smith published a remarkable set of crosscountry 

 Bections, the first being on his large map of 1815, eight others on a larger 

 scale being published separately between 1817 and 1819. Geological sections 

 hardly come within the scope of the present address, but as they form such 

 an important feature on many maps subsequently published, it is as well to 

 bear in mind the fact that Smith was the first to embellish a map in this way. 



Improvements in engraving and in colour printing resulted in geological 

 maps being issued which showed more detail and were less' liable to error than 

 the hand-coloured maps. Close upon Smith's heels came G. B. Greenough, 

 President of the Geological Society, whose ' Geological Map of England and 

 Wales' (63 in. by 75 in., scale 1 in. =5 miles) was published 'under the 

 direction of the Geological Society ' and was accompanied by a memoir. Thirty- 

 ei^ht different strata were indicated, as well as various signs representing 

 mfnes, etc. The first edition, though ready in 1814 and dated November 

 1819, appeared in May 1820. A second edition, -with the colouring much 

 improved, appeared in" 1839. and a third in 1865, after Greenough's death. 

 On this last edition appeared, for the fir.st time, the words 'On the basis of 

 the original Map of William Smitli. 1815.' 



As an indication of the enthusiasm displayed in connection with the issue 

 of geological maps a century ago, the cost of the preparation of this map 

 was 1,30(M., most of which was g-uaranteed before publication. I have recently 

 had occasion to examine many reports of Philosophical Societies and Mechanics' 

 Institutes of that time, and have been astonished at the number of items, 

 varying from six to twenty pounds, shown in the accounts for the purchase 

 of geological maps. Entries of this .sort are very rare in these reports nowadays. 



Jj'rom the great wealth of Greenough's manuscript material in the possession 

 of the Geological Society we can form some idea of the way in which he 

 prepared his large maps, and of the great variety of sources from which 

 he obtained information relating to the geological structure of our islands — 

 even casual references in the daily papers supplied him with particulars. In 

 hie collection are some of the soil maps from the reports of the Board of 

 Agriculture, clearly indicating, as with Smith, that Greenough could put these 

 to good use. 



Of a somewhat similar type, and certainly to be included as classics, are 

 MacCulloch's map of Scotland (1834) and Griffith's map of Ireland (1839 

 and 1853). Of especial historical value is a manuscript map of ' Scotland 

 coloured according to the Rock formations, presented to the Geological Society by 

 Mr. A. L. Necker. Nov. 4th, 1808' (21 in. by 26 in., .scale 1 in.=12i miles). 

 There are seven different colours used to define the various rocks, these being 

 placed upon a copy of Kitohin's map of 1778. The chart is far in advance 

 of the soil-maps, is twenty-six years earlier than MacCulloch's map of Scotland, 

 and even anticipates Smith's large map of England and Wales by seven years. 

 Following these, the middle of the nineteenth century witnessed a veritable 

 epidemic of geological maps of England and Wales, including those of Arrow- 

 emith, Murchison, Walker, Ramsay, Ravenstein. Knipe, Phillips. Johnston, and 

 others, many of which were reprinted and revised on numerous occasions. In 

 addition to the geology, these maps vied with each other in the matter of the 

 quantity of information of all sorts which was crowded upon every available 

 space — the number of cross-country sections shown on some of them being extra- 

 ordinarv. 



