WILLIAM SMITH : HIS MAPS AXD MEMOIRS 
19^ 
the first in this country to discover and to teach the identification o£ 
strata, and to determine their succession, by means of their imbedded 
fossils.' " 
This article is illustrated by a large folding plate on which are 
represented (a) " Mr. Stracey, 1719. Section of Coal Mines in Somer- 
setshire," (b) " Mr. Stracey, 1715, Structure of the Globe ;" (c) " Mr. 
Mitchell, 1760, Internal Structure of the Earth," and (d) " Mr. Smith, 
1817. Section of England and Wales from Snowdon to London." 
This last, I believe, is the only time any of Smith's sections have 
been reproduced. It had been redrawn and reduced for the purpose, 
but the detail is so clear that I am reproducing it in preference to a new 
tracing such as are made for other of Smith's sections. (See pi. XIV. 
Fig. 1. 
BRITISH ASSOCIATION, OXFORD, 1832. 
The following is an extract from the Report of the second meeting 
of the British Association at Oxford in 1832, (p. 99.) : — 
" At the conclusion of the minutes of the Geological Section, 
the President requested the meeting to allow the Wollaston Medal, 
which had been awarded by the Geological Society to Mr. William 
Smith, to be delivered to him in the presence of the members of the 
Association. The President of the Geological Society, Mr. Murchi- 
son, having in consequence presented the medal to him, in the name 
of that Institution, as a testimony of respect to the acknowledged 
' Father of English Geology,' Mr. Smith expressed his gratitude 
for the high honour which had been conferred upon him in the 
Assembly of the British Association, and in the public theatre of so 
distinguished a University, an honour, he said, which was the more 
grateful to his feelings, from the circumstance of Oxfordshire being 
his native county. He little thought in his youth that so proud a 
moment as the present would ever arrive ; and he trusted that his 
example and success would stimulate others to follow in the same 
course. In devoting himself to his geological pursuits, and opening 
a new page of knowledge, he had had the satisfaction of procuring 
the good will of many kind and indulgent friends ; he hoped that he 
had served his country, and in so doing, he had endeavoured to 
serve his God." 
