423 
Geology, since that time, has shown that the stabiUty of our 
great public buildings depends on a proper selection from 
the rocks best adapted for building ; and Mr. Wm. Smith, 
who shared in the obloquy of following such useless pursuits 
in the infancy of the science, was in his old age employed by 
Government, in conjunction with Mr. De la Beche and others, 
to examine the various strata of the United Kingdom, with a 
view to selecting the best stone for building the new Houses 
of Parliament. 
The conditions under which we now find the surface of 
the earth have a close connection with agriculture, and it is of 
importance to obtain a correct knowledge of the composition 
of various soils. It is well known that soils, as regards their 
chemical constituents, are by no means immediately dependant 
on the rocks immediately subjacent to them, but that either 
diluvial, or some other vast agency has been employed, by 
which the constituent parts of soils, and even rocks of con- 
siderable magnitude, have been carried great distances. An 
extended knowledge of this may prove a valuable addition to 
that important connection of geology with agriculture which 
has been actively and ably promoted by societies of both 
these departments. That vast deluges of water have swept 
over the surface of the earth, and that considerable difi^erences 
of level have prevailed while the process of denudation was 
being effected, has long been the received opinion of all w^ho 
have considered the subject ; but the theory of glacial action 
is one of the most interesting additions to this branch of 
geological investigation, inasmuch as it promises to explain 
phenomena which were previously not accounted for, and 
because it presents authentic and legible records, — if the 
evidences to be described in the sequel are rightly ascribed 
to glacial origin. 
Before alluding further to the existence of former glaciers 
in England, it may be useful to take a brief survey of what 
