WILLIAM SMITH COLLECTION. 7 



and Wales, comprising also a part of Scotland, measures Gallery XI. 

 8 feet 9 inches by 6 feet 2 inches. Several sections across 

 England, published by Smith in 1819, are placed on the 

 wall around his bust. Here also are reproductions of the 

 first small sketcli for the larger map coloured by him in 

 1801, of a map of the country around Bath coloured geologi- 

 cally by him in 1799, and of a table of strata dictated by 

 him in the same year.* The original MSS. of these were 

 presented by Smith to the Geological Society in 1831. 



Smith's views on the value of fossils to the geologist and 

 surveyor were enunciated in his works " Strata identified by 

 organised fossils," of which four parts only were published 

 (4to, 1816-1819), and " Stratigraphical system of organised 

 fossils " (4to, 1817). A set of the plates from the former 

 work is exhibited in the Case below Smith's bust and in a 

 frame on the adjoining wall. The different colours to the 

 backgrounds of the plates are the same as those employed by 

 Smith in his geological map, and have continued in general 

 use, with many of our common geological names for 

 British formations, such as Lias, Greensand, Coral Eag, and 

 Cornbrash, all of which were adopted by him from the local 

 terms in use by quarrymen and others. The fossils illus- 

 trated in these works, with many others collected by Smith, 

 are contained in the same cabinet, and form the most 

 characteristic memorial of one who was justly termed by 

 Adam Sedgwick " the father of English geology." 



Besides the William Smith Collection, acquired by the 

 Trustees in 1816 and 1818, there are arranged in the Table- 

 cases of this Gallery eight other collections of special interest 

 as bearing either on the early history of the British Museum 

 or the study of geology and palaeontology in this councry. 



At the end of the Gallery will be found the oldest and, Table-case 

 in some respects, the most interesting cf these, under the 1^* 

 heading The Sloane Collection. Here are still retained in 

 their old association just one hundred specimens out of the 

 large series that once formed the museum of Sir Hans Sloane 

 (1660-1753), who by the terms of his will, may be considered 

 the first founder of the British Museum, since he offered his 

 collection to the nation for the relatively small sum of 

 £20,000, in order " that it might be preserved and maintained, 

 not only for the inspection and entertainment of the learned 

 and the curious, but for the general use and benefit of the 



* See J. W. Judd : " William Smith's Manuscript Maps," Geological 

 Magazine, 1897, p. 439. 



