100 Prof. Judd — The Earliest Engraved Geological Maps. 



that the actual engraving of his map was entrusted to a geologist 

 who is second only to William Smith himself in his contributions 

 to English stratigraphical geology. Thomas Webster, in his letters 

 to Sir Henry Englefield, published in 1815, had shown that he had 

 unravelled many of the complexities of the English Tertiary strata, 

 and laid the foundation of a coiTect classification of the beds which 

 underlie the Chalk in the SouthEast of England; and it was to 

 Webster that we owe the actual preparation and engraving of the 

 Greenough Map. 



Many years afterwards, Greenough published a Geological Map of 

 India — a country which he had never visited — by bringing together 

 all the scattered observations recorded in journals or existing in 

 manuscript in the Archives of the India House. It would not 

 be correct to speak of Greenough's Map of England and Wales 

 as a mere compilation like his Map of India, for it is evident that 

 in the case of the former map he took much pains in verifying 

 and correcting information upon the ground, as is vouched for 

 by Conybeare and other authorities. On the other hand, Greenough's 

 claim that his map should be regarded as an independent work, 

 when compared with that of William Smith, is one that no geologist 

 who has studied the question can reasonably allow. In saying 

 this we do not for one moment impugn the good faith or question the 

 honesty of Greenough. Owing to the unfortunate procrastination 

 of William Smith in the matter of publication, many of his ideas 

 and discoveries had become public property, even before the com- 

 mencement of the century, and Greenough may very well have 

 been quite unaware how much of the current information on the 

 succession and distribution of the English strata was directly 

 traceable to the labours of Smith. In 1865, when the Greenough 

 Map had become the property of the Geological Society, and a third 

 and revised edition was being prepared, a Committee of the Society, 

 which included Godwin-Austen, Murchison, Prestwich, and Phillips, 

 deliberately recommended, as the result of their inquiries, that the 

 map should henceforth bear the imprint " based on the original map 

 of William Smith" ; and every unprejudiced student of the history 

 of geology will agree that the action of the Council in adopting this 

 suggestion was a wise and just one. Apart from his industry and 

 perseverance in Cartography, it must be admitted that the claims 

 of Greenough to be regarded as a pioneer in geological research 

 cannot for one moment be compared with those of William Smith. 

 In the same year that his map appeared, Greenough published his 

 work " A Critical Examination of the First Principles of Geology " ; 

 and an inspection of this work will satisfy any geologist that even 

 at that date he held the most uncertain views concerning the use and 

 value of fossils, and, indeed, upon all geological principles that were 

 not included in the creed of the straitest sect of the Wernerians. 



In 1812 Greenough laid the first draft of his map before the 

 Council of the Geological Society, and in the same year William 

 Smith at last found a publisher for his great work in the enterprising 

 John Carv. 



