WILLIAM SMITH ! HIS MAPS AND MEMOIRS 
127 
collieries and mines, and some vacancies in the superficial courses 
of them, yet that the general order is preserved ; and that each 
stratum is also possessed of properties peculiar to itself, has the 
same exterior characters and chenxical qualities, and the same 
•extraneous or organised fossils throughout its course. I have, 
with immense labour and expense, collected specimens of each 
stratum, and of the peculiar extraneous fossils, organic remains, and 
vegetable impressions, and compared them with others from very 
distant parts of the island, with reference to the exact habitation 
of each, and have arranged them in the same order as they lay 
in the earth ; which arrangement must readily convince every 
scientific or discerning person, that the earth is formed as well as 
governed, like the other works of its great Creator, according to 
regular and immutable laws, which are discoverable by human 
industry and observation, and which form a legitimate and most 
important object of science. The discoveries and improvements, 
both in mining and agriculture, which are now confined to a few 
parts of the kingdom, may be fully extended to many more, and 
in some degree to all, by a better knowledge of geology ; and a 
faithful general view of the soil and substrata of our island (in 
which no beds are omitted that can well be described in such a 
map) will be found a work of great convenience, in considering 
the various applications which are made to the legislature for canals, 
roads, and railways alone." 
The first table in the volume, facing page 8, is entitled Order of 
the Strata and their imbedded Organic Remains, in the Vicinity of 
Bath ; examined and proved prior to 1799." Its remarkable state 
of completeness is due to the exceptional opportunities Smith had for 
exanxining that area. Details of 23 different beds are given,commencing 
with " chalk," and ending with " Coal." The particulars are classified 
under the heads of " Strata ; Thickness ; Springs ; Fossils ; Petri- 
factions, &c., &c. ; Descriptive Characters and Situations." (See 
adjoining table No. 1). 
The " Fossils," etc., in Chalk are given as " Echinites, Pyrites, 
MytiHtes, Dentalia, Funnel-shaped Corals, and Madrepores, Nautilites, 
Strombites, Cochlise, Ostrese, Serpulse." 
And in the Coal, " Impressions of Ferns, Olive, Stellate Plants, 
Threnax-parviflora, or Dwarf Fan Palm of Jamaica." 
