Visit to the British Museum. 423 



Hantoniensia Collecta, et in Musaso Britannico deposita." The 

 descriptions of the species given in the work were written by Dr. 

 Solander, one of the Officers of the British Museum. They were 

 " collected in the County of Hampshire, out of the cliffs by the sea- 

 coast between Christchurch and Lymington, but more especially 

 about the cliffs by the village of Hordwell, nearly midway betwixt 

 the two former places" (op. cit. p. 111). 



Only a small number out of the original 120 figured specimens, 

 are now capable of being identified, the rest having become, in the 

 course of 120 years, commingled with the far more numerous and 

 later Eocene Tertiary acquisitions, and so have lost their connection 

 with this admirable Memoir. The engravings of the shells are equal 

 to any modern published work descriptive of the fossils of the Eocene 

 formation ; but the names given by Dr. Solander are in many 

 instances incorrect, according to our present knowledge of the genera 

 of Mollusca. 



The next series to which I would direct your attention is the 

 Collection of William Smith, LL.D. This Collection, which was 

 commenced about the year 1787, was purchased by the Trustees in 

 1816, a supplemental Collection being added by Dr. Smith in 1818, 



It is remarkable as the first attempt made to identify the various 

 strata forming the solid crust of England and Wales by means of 

 their fossil remains. There had been other and earlier Collections 

 of fossils, but to William Smith is due the credit of being the first to 

 show that each bed of Chalk or Sandstone, Limestone or Clay, is 

 marked by its own special organisms and that these can be relied 

 upon as characteristic of such stratum, wherever it is met with, over 

 very wide areas of country. 



The fossils contained in this Cabinet were gathered together by 

 William Smith in his journeys over all parts of England during 

 thirty years, whilst occupied in his business as a Land Surveyor and. 

 Engineer, and were used to illustrate his works, " Strata Identified 

 by Organized Fossils," with coloured plates quarto (1816 ; four parts 

 only published) : and his " Stratigraphical System of Organized 

 Fossils" (quarto, 1817). 



A coloured copy of his large Geological Map, the first Geological 

 Map of England and Wales, with a part of Scotland, commenced in 

 1812 and published in 1815 — size 8 feet 9 inches by 6 feet 2 inches 

 wide, engraved by John Cary — is exhibited in the last Wall-case on 

 the right hand side of this Gallery, at the north end. It is well 

 worthy of careful inspection. 



William Smith was born at Churchill, a village of Oxfordshire, 

 in 1769; he was the son of a small farmer and mechanic of the 

 same name, but his father died when he was only eight years old, 

 leaving him to the care of his uncle, who acted as his guardian, 

 William's uncle did not approve of the boy's habit of collecting 

 stones (" pundibs " = TerebratulcB, and " quoit-stones " =. Clypeus 

 simiatus) ; but seeing that his nephew was studious, he gave him a 

 little money to buy books. By means of these he taught himself 

 the rudiments of geometry and land-surveying, and at the age of 



