Miscellaneous — Monument to William Smith, LL.D. 95 



parts, and had already begun carefully and systematically to collect 

 fossils and to observe the structure of the rocks. In 1793 he was 

 appointed to survey the course of the intended Somersetshire Coal- 

 Canal, near Bath. For six years he was the resident engineer of the 

 canal, and, applying his previously-acquired knowledge, he was 

 enabled to prove that the strata from the New Eed Marl (Trias) 

 upwards followed each other in a regular and orderly succession, 

 each bed being marked by its own characteristic fossils, and having 

 a general tendency or " dip " to the south-east. 



To verify his theory he travelled in subsequent years over the 

 greater part of England and Wales, and made careful observations of 

 the geological succession of the rocks, proving also, by the fossils 

 obtained, the identity of the strata over very wide areas along their 

 outcrops. 



His knowledge of fossils advanced even further, for he discovered 

 that those in situ retained their sharpness, whereas the same speci- 

 mens derived from the drifts or gravel-deposits were usually rounded 

 and water- worn, and had reached their present site by subsequent 

 erosion of the parent-rock. 



In 1799 William Smith circulated in MS. the order of succession 

 of the strata and imbedded organic remains found in the vicinity 

 of Bath. 



His Geological Map of England and Wales is dated 1815. 



On June 1, 1816, he published his "Strata Identified by Organized 

 Fossils," with illustrations of the most characteristic specimens in 

 each stratum (4to.). 



In 1817 he printed "A Stratigraphical System of Organized 

 Fossils," compiled from the original geological collection deposited 

 in the British Museum (4to.). 



In 1819 he published a reduction of his great Greological Map, 

 together with several sections across England. 



These sections have lately been presented to the British Museum by 

 Wm. Topley, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S., and are exhibited upon the wall 

 near Smith's bust in the Geological Gallery (No. 11), see Guide-Book. 



Mr. Smith received the award of the first Wollaston Medal and 

 Fund in 1831, from the hands of Prof. Sedgwick, the President of 

 the Geological Society — "As a great original discoverer in English 

 geology, and especially for his having been the first, in this country, 

 to discover and teach the identification of strata, and to determine 

 their succession by means of their imbedded fossils." 



In June, 1832, the Government of H.M. King William the Fourth 

 awarded Mr. Smith a pension of £100 a year, but he only enjoyed 

 it for seven years, as he died 28 August, 1839. 



In 1835 the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon Mr. Smith by 

 the Provost and Fellows of Trinity College, Dublin. 



The highest compliment paid him was that by Sedgwick, who 

 rightly named him "the Father of English Geology." 



The bust above the case which contains William Smith's collection 

 is a copy of that by Chantry surmounting the tablet to his memory 

 in the beautiful antique church of All Saints, at Northampton, where 

 his remains lie buried. 



