442 Professor J. W. Judd—Wm. Smith's MS. Maps. 



Geological Department of the Natural History Museum at Cromwell 

 Road, South Kensington ; and a fourth to the Library of the British 

 Museum at Bloomsbury. 



The origin of the first of the three documents of the series has 

 been admirably told by Phillips in his " Life of Smith" (p. 29). 



*' One day, after dining together at the house of the Rev. Joseph 

 Townsend " (29, Pulteney Street, Bath), "it was proposed by one of 

 this triumvirate " (Smith, Richardson, and Townsend) " that a tabular 

 view of the main features of the subject, as it had been expounded 

 by Mr. Smith, and verified and enriched by their joint labours, 

 should be drawn up in writing. Richardson held the pen and 

 wrote down, from Smith's dictation, the different strata according 

 to their order of succession in descending order, commencing with 

 the Chalk, and numbered, in continuous series, down to the Coal, 

 below which the strata were not sufiiciently determined. To this 

 description of the strata was added, in the proper places, a list of 

 the most remarkable fossils which had been gathered in the several 

 layers of rock. The names of these fossils wei'e principally supplied 

 by Mr. Richardson, and are such as were then, and for a long time 

 afterwards, familiarly employed in many collections near Bath. 

 Of the document thus jointly arranged, each person present took 

 a copy,^ under no stipulation as to the use which should be made 

 of it, and accordingly it was extensively distributed, and remained 

 for a long period the type and authority for the descriptions and 

 order of superposition of the strata near Bath." 



The table in the possession of the Geological Society is in the 

 handwriting of Richardson, but bears the following attestation 

 written by Smith himself: 



"This table of the strata, dictated by myself, is in the hand- 

 writing of the Rev. Benjamin Richardson, and was first reduced to 

 writing at the house of the Rev. Joseph Townsend, Pulteney Street, 

 Bath. 1799.— Wm. Smith." 



" This very curious and important document," as Sedgwick 

 pointed out, " was the first tabular sketch of our formations, 

 drawn up before William Smith had, in conjunction with Mr. 

 Richardson, finally decided upon the names by which they ought 

 to be designated ; and the successive groups, from the Coal-measures 

 to the Chalk inclusive, are represented by a series of numbers, 

 accompanied with explanatory notes, but without any proper names 

 affixed to them." ^ 



As full transcripts of this table have been published by both Fitton^ 

 and Phillips,* it will be sufficient here to indicate the several divisions 

 then recognized by Smith with the names by which they were 

 subsequently known. 



' According to a written statement of "William Smith, published by Fitton, a copy 

 of the document was, at the time it was drawn up, given to William James, Esq. 



2 Proc. Geol. Soc, vol. i (1831), p. 276. 



3 Phil. Mag., vol. ii (1833), pp. 46, 47. 

 * "Life of WUiam Smith," p. 30. 



