277 



to be found within this little island. But should the present Essay 

 meet with that liberal patronage from the public which the author has 

 reason to expect, it is his intention, in a future work, to give a particu- 

 lar description of the numerous animal remains and vegetable impres- 

 sions found in each stratum ; with an accurate detail of every charac- 

 teristic mark that has led him to these discoveries." 



Why his hopes of patronage were disappointed, and why his 

 works were so long retarded, not by any want of zeal on his part, 

 but by want of assistance from the public, it is not for me now 

 to inquire — The fact is not, however, difficult of explanation. At 

 the time this prospectus made its first appearance, none of the 

 magnificent discoveries of Cuvier and Brongniart were, I believe, 

 published*. The Geological Society of London had no existence — 

 the branches of natural history connected with secondary geology 

 were little cultivated, and indeed almost unknown in this country — 

 and hence some persons perhaps doubted the reality of Mr. Smith's 

 pretensions on a subject they had been taught to regard as em- 

 pirical, and the public at large took little interest in what they did 

 not comprehend. He suffered, therefore, as many men of genius 

 have done before him, in his peace and in his fortune, from what 

 in our estimation constitutes his chief honour — from outstripping the 

 men of his own time in the progress of discovery. 



The Geological Society was organized in the year 1807, and 

 its Transactions are the true records of its labours and opinions. 

 In the first volume of the first series, published in 1811, and com- 

 posed of papers read during the four preceding years, there is 

 one paper, and one only, containing any direct allusion to the 

 great geological importance of organic remains. The allusion 

 is conveyed in the following words — " To derive any informa- 

 tion of consequence from fossil organized remains, on these sub- 

 jects, it is necessary that their examination should be connected 

 with that of the several strata in which they are found. Already 

 have these examinations, thus carried on, taught us the following 

 instructive facts : — that exactly similar fossils are found in distant 

 parts of the same stratum, not only when it traverses this island, 

 but when it appears again on the opposite coast : that in strata of 

 considerable comparative depth fossils are found, which are not 

 discovered in any of the superincumbent beds : that some fossils, 

 which abound in the lower, are found in diminishing numbers 

 through several of the superincumbent, and are entirely wanting in 

 the uppermost strata f ," &c. &c. 



To this passage, the author appends a note, commencing as fol- 

 lows : — " This mode of conducting our inquiries was long since 

 recommended by Mr. W. Smith, who first noticed that certain fos- 

 sils are peculiar to, and are only found lodged in, particular strata; 

 and who first ascertained the constancy in the order of super- 

 position, and the continuity of the strata of this island," &c. &c. 



* The first memoir with which I am acquainted, explaining the views of these 

 two illustrious authors respecting the phasnomena of the Paris basin, was pub* 

 lished in the year 1808, in the Annales du Museum, torn. xi. p. 307. 



f Geol. Trans, vol. i. 1st series, p. 325« 



