Professor J. W. Jiidd—Wm. Smith's MS. Maps. 447 



7. Carboniferous Limestone, with which is confounded the Mag- 



nesian Limestone (bright blue). 



8. Old Ked Sandstone (reddish-brown). 



The distribution of the Coal-measures is indicated by the crowding 

 together of the crosses representing collieries ; the position of the 

 slaty rocks by marks standing for slate-qnarries ; while a few mines 

 are represented in the North of England, Wales, and Derbyshire, but 

 none in Cornwall ! 



The east coast of Great Britain has been roughly continued by 

 a manuscript line as far as Forfarshire, the name '' Redhead " being 

 written nearly in the position of Arbroath. Collieries are represented 

 near Edinburgh, a colliery and limestone, with the words " Coal 

 9 yards thick," in the South of Fife, and limestoue in Forfarshire. 

 Where the west coast of Scotland would appear we have in Smith's 

 handwriting " Slate, etc., Eysdale Island, Isle of Bute." In the 

 Isle of Man patches of coloiir indicate the limestones of Castletown 

 and the red sandstones of Peel. 



While this first sketch of a geological map is remarkable for the 

 accuracy with which the main outlines of the geological structure of 

 the country are represented, certain omissions and errors are note- 

 worthy as affording the clearest evidence that the map was actually 

 constructed at the date written upon it (1801), and that it had no 

 additions made to it at a later date. 



The absence of any colouring for the Tertiary strata of East 

 Anglia and the London and Hampshire Basins, for the Wealden 

 area, and for the Jurassic district of the Eastern Moorlands of 

 Yoi'kshire, are especially striking in this connection. It can be 

 shown that in the years immediately following 1801, Smith had 

 opportunities, which he utilized with more or less success, in ob- 

 taining information concerning these three districts, but no trace 

 of knowledge concerning them appears on the map. Yet of his 

 industry and ingenuity in bringing together every fact which could 

 aid him in the construction of the map of 1801 we have abundant 

 proofs. The Yorkshire Wolds were only seen by him from the top 

 of York Minster and recognized by their contour, yet the range of 

 the Chalk is well represented in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, as well 

 as in the North and South Downs, and in Dorsetshire and the Isle 

 of Wight. Accurate information was obtained by Smith, as we have 

 seen, concerning Scotland and the Isle of Man, which he had never 

 visited, and it may be added, as further evidence of his painstaking 

 inquiries, that a colliery is represented at Bovey Tracey and another 

 in the Eastern Moorlands of Yorkshire. 



Alike, then, from its excellence and its defects, this map appeals 

 to British Geologists as being the first sketch — an imperfect one it 

 is true, but far in advance of any earlier or contemporary work — of 

 that remarkable " Map of the Strata of England and Wales " which 

 was published by William Smith in 1815, and which will ever remain 

 the most striking monument of his genius. 



