94 Miscellaneous — Monument to William Smith, LL.D. 



Kiicksicht auf deutsche Auswanderung," showed his keen sympathy 

 with the political and social problems of the time. J. W. G. 



[As a friend and companion, Dr. Ferdinand Eoemer was one of 

 the most cheerful and congenial of men ; the Editor is reminded of 

 a delightful fortnight spent in his society in the Eifel, in 1878. His 

 spirits and fun never seemed to become exhausted, and his vast 

 stores of scientific knowledge were always at the disposal of his 

 companions. His memory will be cherished by a large circle of 

 younger men to whom his unvarying kindness will always be re- 

 called with a sense of pleasing regret. — H. W.] 



A Monument to William S^iith, LL.D. 



One of the most interesting historical collections preserved in the 

 British Museum (Natural History) is the Geological Collection of 

 William Smith, LL.D. This was commenced about the year 1787, 

 and purchased by the Trustees in 1816, a supplemental Collection 

 being added V>y 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 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, 

 engraved by John Cary — is exhibited in the Geological Department 

 near his collection. 



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

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

 Terehratulo',, and " quoit-stones "=C/?/j;ei(s siniiahis) ; 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 eighteen he obtained employ- 

 ment as a land surveyor in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, and other 



