APPENDIX A : W. smith's CLAIMS 
215 
Mr. Smith's Map and other Works before the PubUc being well 
received, and very favourably noticed in the Edinburgh Review, and 
a " Statement of His Claims " being pubhshed by his Friends, he may 
now with propriety explain the subject himself. 
Mr. William Smith's Claims to the Discovery and EstabUshment 
of Principles which have perfected the System of English Geology. 
My Claim to the Original Discovery of " constancy in the Order 
of superposition," and " continuity in the couises of British Strata," 
with the peculiar mode of identifying them by organized Fossils im- 
bedded, can be supported by many to whom these early observations 
were communicated : particularly by the Rev^. Benjamin Richardson, 
who in the presence of the late Rev^. Joseph Townsend, drew up my 
first " Tabular Account of British Strata," printed in my Geological 
" Memoir," Table 1, p. 8. Copies of this Paper were taken by the 
two Gentlemen present, and another was given to Mr. James, Land 
Agent. 
Reference may also be made to Sir Joseph Banks, The Duke of 
Bedford, and Mr. Coke, at whose Sheepshearings, and Agricultural 
and Philosophical Meetings, my original Maps of the Strata were 
exhibited and explained, from 1799 to 1804 ; and many original 
Letters and Papers can be produced. 
The Rev^. Benjamin Richardson, Rev*^. Joseph Townsend, Chas. 
Joseph Harford, Esq"^., of Bristol, and The Rev'^. Richd. Warner, were 
the first of the Scientific Gentlemen in the West who became acquainted 
with the subject, and immediately adapted my new arrangement of 
Organized Fossils, in the Order of the Strata which contain them. 
In 1799, the information began to spread in Wiltshire, through 
Mr. Wm. Cunnington, and others, to whom I had explained it, and in 
the latter part of this year and the beginning of 1800, through Dr. 
James Anderson, who proposed to insert Papers on the subject in his 
work called " Recreations on Agriculture." 
In 1801, Proposals were issued for publishing a Quarto Vol. on 
the subject, and a small Map was lodged with Mr. Debret. 
In 1802, the late Duke of Bedford had so far satisfied himself 
of the general accuracy and usefulness of my Discoveries, as to request 
me, but a few weeks before his Death, to send him specimens of all the 
