202 
WILLIAM SMITH : HIS MAPS AND MEMOIRS 
regular distribution of organic remains liad before been recognised in 
Italy by Steno, and in France by Rouelle ; and altbough Werner in 
bis lectures, and Saussure . . . appear to have indicated generally that 
the laws of this distribution bore a relation to the geological age of 
the formations containing them, yet a degree of vagueness hung over 
the whole subject, which precluded any extensive or useful application 
of this great principle, until the acute observations of Smith first 
brought it prominently forward in all the precision of exact detail as 
applied to a vast succession of formations, including the most important 
portion of the geological series ; and as from his situation in life we 
must consider the discoveries of Smith as the extraordinary results of 
native and untaught sagacity of intellect, they must on this account 
be held to challenge a still warmer tribute of approbation, and may be 
regarded as strictly original in him, even where faint traces of antici- 
pation may be found in Continental writings little likely to have fallen 
beneath his observation." Later, Conybeare adds* : " The publica- 
tion in 1815 of Smith's general geological map of England, succeeded 
by his more detailed separate county maps, illustrated by the work 
of the same author on ' The English Strata identified by Organic 
Remains,' and by the contemporaneous production of Sowerby on 
Mineral Conchology, filled up the whole great outline of English Geology, 
and left to those who followed little more than the task of condensing 
and concentrating what was already ascertained, and enlarging and 
rendering more precise the detail." 
It is interesting to thus get a contemporary estimate of the value 
of Smith's work, on the authority of Conybeare, particularly when it 
is remembered that in all probability Smith was present and heard 
the address dehvered. 
BUCKLAND, 1840. 
In his Anniversary Address to the Geological Societyf in February, 
1840, Prof. Buckland gave a lengthy account of the work of William 
Smith, who had recently died. He stated tha^ the estabhshment of 
the types in secondary geology from the chalk to the new red sandstone, 
is due to England ; and the discovery of the leading natural divisions of 
that important portion of them which constitutes the oolite formations, 
was almost exclusively the work of Mr. WiUiam Smith." 
* loc. cit., p. 373. 
t Proc. Geol. Soc, Vol. III., 1840, p. 249, et sec. 
