WILLIAM SMITH : HIS MAPS AND MEMOIRS 
85 
explaining the simplest facts, continually broke tbe sjomnetiy of Mr. 
Smith's lectures. Slight matters, things curious in themselves, but not 
clearly or commonly associated with the general purpose of the lecture, 
swelled into excrescences, and stopped the growth of parts which were 
more important in themselves, or necessary to connect the observations 
into an intelligible and satisfactory system. But there was a charm 
thrown over these discoveries by the novelty and appropriateness of 
the diagrams and modelHngs which exempHfied the arrangement of the 
rocks, the total absence of all technical trifling from the explanations, 
and the simpHcity and earnestness of the man." 
This " side-tracking " alluded to by PhilUps is obvious in Smith's 
books, particularly the first one. 
One of the original copies of the " Table of Strata," by Smith, 
a complete set of the cross-country sections which he pubHshed, as 
well as a fine series of characteristic fossils,* left by Smith and 
Phillips at the close of these lectures, are among the most cherished 
possessions in the Hull Museum to-day. 
The great work Smith did in our county, and the great effect the 
geology of Yorkshire had on some of his conclusions, is little known. 
Most that is recorded occurs in Phillips's Memoir, which is now an 
exceedingly scarce book.f This includes a few facts which are worthy 
of being preserved in our Proceedings. 
In 1794, while engaged in the construction of a canal in the south 
of England, WilHam Smith, " their engineer," was sent with two 
members of the Canal Company on a 900 miles' tour, in order to 
examine other navigations. During this trip he took notes of the 
country he passed through, and the following was written with regard 
to our countyj : — 
" We found the small steam engines much better applied to 
raising coal in Yorkshire than in Somersetshire, where not more 
than one (I beheve), badly constructed, was then in use. 
* These are referred to on p. 21 of the Third Report of the Hull 
Society, as follows : — "Mr. W. Smith, IMr. J. Phillips : Fossils, ilkistra- 
tive of the Stratification on the Coast of Yorkshire." 
I My copy is inscribed to "Henry Davies Esq., with the best 
wishes of John Phillips, 13th Aug., 1856." 
t loc. cit., pp. 12-13. 
