WILLIAM SMITH : HIS MAPS AND MEMOIRS 
99 
appears by Mr. Smeatoii's title or endorsement on it, viz., " Mr. Michel's 
account of the south of England Strata," which is as follows, viz. : — 
Yards. 
Chalk 120 
Golt 50 
Sand. 
Sand of Bedfordshire 10 or 20 
Northampton lime and Portland limes lying 
in several strata 100 
Lyas strata 70 or 100 
Sand, of Newark about 30 
Red Clay, of Tuxf ord and several 100 
Sherewood Forest Pebbles and Gravel ... 50 unequal 
Very fine and white sand ... ... ... uncertain 
Roch Abbey aiid Brotherton hmes ... ... 100 
Coal Strata of Yorkshire ... ... ... , , 
The Mr. Michel alluded to, was, it appears, the late Rev. John 
Michel, Rector of Thornhill, near Wakefield, Yorkshire, who was an 
intimate friend of Mr. Smeaton, the late Mr. Cavendish, etc., etc., 
and whose name must be very familiar to most of your readers, from his 
many valuable papers in the Transactions of the Royal Society of 
London, of which he was a member.'.' 
" This account of the strata, imperfect as it is, appears to me im- 
portant as showing that Mr. Michel was acquainted with the principal 
features of the south of England strata, at an earlier period than any 
thing was published on the subject, especially if we siippose, as is most 
leasonable, that this communication was made verbally by Mr. Michel 
to his friend Mr. Smeaton, very soon after November, 1788, who took it 
down on the cover of a recent letter as being the only piece of paper 
then at hand ; for Mr. Smeaton's decease in September. 1792, shows 
that it must have been prior to that timel" 
SMEATON, 1791. 
Dr. Fitton states that : The most direct instance that we have 
met with, of the actual tracing the Course «f ^iny of the strata of f^ngland, 
before the commencement of Mr. Smith's investigations, occurs in the 
celebrated work of Smeaton on the Eddystone Lighthouse, and it affords 
