C PEOCEEDlNaS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETT. [vol. Ixxili, 



May 16th, 1917. 



Dr. Alfeed Haeelee, F.R.S., President, 

 in the Chair. 



The Kev. Joseph Fowler, M.A., Niclcl Vicarage, Harrogate 

 (Yorkshire), was elected a Fellow of the Society. 



The List of Donations to the Library was read. 



A Lecture on British Greological Maps as a liecord of 

 the Advance of Geolog}" was delivered by Thomas Sheppaed, 

 M.Sc, F.Gr.S. He observed that geological changes Avere in many 

 cases indicated on old topographical maps ; consequently, very old 

 plans and charts were of use in connexion with geological enquiries, 

 although not strictly geological in character. Some examples of 

 maps, dating from Elizabethan times, were exhibited, and the}" 

 showed that in the Humber area great changes had taken place : 

 in certain districts large tracts of land had been denuded, and man}' 

 towns and villages had disappeared ; in others, large stretches of 

 reclaimed land marked places where water once stood. So long ago 

 as 1595 writers were familiar with lithological differences in various 

 parts of the country, and in 1683 Martin Lister read to the Royal 

 Society a paper in which he definiteh^ suggested ' A Scheme for 

 the Mapping of Soils and Rocks,' wherein he mentioned the various 

 kinds of rocks that occurred in Yorkshire ; but his scheme was not 

 actually carried out until a century later. Strachey (1719) and 

 Packe (1743) produced some remarkable geological sections and 

 plans. . 



The first systematic series of maps, illustrating the geological 

 features of the counties, was issued in the Reports of the old 

 Board of Agriculture, and dated from 1793 to 1822. These 

 Reports usually contained ' soil-maps ' of the counties described, 

 upon which chalk, sandstone, limestone, peat, marl, gravel, etc. 

 were shown by colours and shading. William Smith was certainly 

 familiar with these ' Agricultural Surveys,' and doubtless they 

 provided him with information that assisted him in the preparation 

 of his great map of the geology of England and Wales, issued in 

 1815. ^ 



One of the earliest and most serious attempts to prepare geolo- 

 gical maps was by Prof. Jameson, who read a paper in 1805 * On 

 Colouring Geognostical Maps ' (Wernerian Nat. Hist. Soc. vol. i, 

 published 1811) ; but the enormous number of complicated signs 

 and symbols that he suggested proved unsuitable for practical 

 purposes, although there were many good features in his coloui'- 

 scheme. 



The first strictly geological map (now in the Society's possession) 

 was apparently that made by William Smitli in 1799, showing the 

 geological structure of the Bath District. This had been proved 

 by the Lecturer to have been coloured on a plan originally issued 

 in ' The New Bath Gruide ' of 1799. The first geologicar map of 



