The Centenary of Wm. Smith's Birth. 357 



4. A Paper by Farey (Smith's Boswell), Phil. Mag., March, 1818. 



6. Obituary Notice in Geol. Journal. 



It is difficult to make these agree in the matter of dates. Mr. 

 Mitchell believes the reminiscences printed in Phil. Mag. 1833, are 

 most trustworthy, as they were written by Smith himself in 1804. 

 Although Smith was present when Sedgwick gave his address, and the 

 facts were supplied by himself, yet this was in 1831, and his memory 

 in 1804, it is thought, was more likely to be accurate. Following then 

 his own (1804) account of himself, it appears that after surveying 

 and noticing the different kinds of ground in various parts of 

 England at the age of 22, he settled in Somersetshire in 1791, at 

 High Littleton, a village within a few miles of Bath. He says : — 

 " The discoveries of regularity in the strata chiefly origi- 

 nated in surveys of estates and collieries in Somersetshire, where I 

 found at High Littleton the same red earth sunk through for coal." 



His next observation was on the dip of the strata. 



"My observations on the superposition and continuity of the 

 strata were greatly extended in 1792 ; and in the following year 

 (1793), by taking levels for the proposed Somersetshire canal, I 



proved the Eed Marl, Lias, blue marl, and Inferior Oolite 



to be generally inclined to the east." The Somersetshire Coal Canal 

 Bill passed April 8, and received Eoyal assent April 17, 1794. In 

 August, 1794, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Perkins, and "Mr. Smith, the sur- 

 veyor" were appointed by the Canal Committee to make a tour 

 through England, which extended as far north as Newcastle. This 

 gave Smith an opportunity of conlSrming his views. The party 

 returned to Bath, and on October 3, 1794, gave in their report. 



The next quotation from William Smith's reminiscences is of im- 

 portance,' as showing how Smith has recorded his next step, the 

 identification of the strata from their organised contents. — The 

 Somersetshire Coal Canal consists of a main line and a branch to 

 Eadstock, but with this branch William Smith had little to do. 

 The main line runs from near High Littleton to Dundas aqueduct, 

 where it joins the Kennet and Avon Canal ; the entire length being 

 little over ten miles. Tracing its course from High Littleton it 

 passes for about three miles over New Eed marl, then turning north- 

 east, crosses a strip of Lias for about three quarters of a mile, and 

 near Withy Ditch it first enters the Sands, known as Upper Lias 

 Sands or Inferior Oolite Sands. It then meets the hills of Inferior 

 Oolite near Dunkerton, and after again crossing a narrow valley of 

 the Sands, it continues on the Inferior Oolite to Combehay. Here 

 for about a quarter of a mile- it lies on Fuller's earth ; then from 

 there to South Stoke is again on Inferior Oolite. At South Stoke 

 there is a great change of level in the canal, and from here to the 

 end of its course it is on the before-named Sands. 



" For six years," writes William Smith, " I was resident engineer 

 on the Somersetshire Coal Canal, which put my notions of coal 

 stratification to the test of excavation ; and I generally pointed out 



1 In the Bath Ghronicle report of the lecture it is giyen in the wi-ong place, and 

 thereby loses its chief interest. 



