APPENDIX A : W. smith's CLAIMS 
217 
fatigable Zeal and industry of the Kev'^. Mr. Buckland, the Science, and 
probably some of the newly arranged Collection, was transferred from 
Farley to Oxford. 
By this industrious diffusion of the Science, my highly esteemed 
Friend & others thought they were greatly serving me, and the 
Country, " which expects every man to do his Duty," and that a 
suitable reward for the Discovery and establishment of English Geology, 
would not be long withheld. 
So rapidly and extensively has the Science spread in the West 
that Ladies in Wiltshire, and parts adjacent, where specimens of 
identification are numerous and obtained with facihty, have dis- 
tinguished themselves by these acquirements. 
The Geological Society, formed in 1807 of Members whose minds 
had been purposely, or imperceptibly, stored with this knowledge, 
could not fail to make the rapid progress for which they are distin- 
guished. And in the first Vol. of their Transactions, Mr. Parkinson, 
in his Paper on Fossil Kemains contained in the Strata near London, 
observes, that "this mode of conducting our enquiries was long since 
recommended by Mr. Wm. Smith, who first noticed that ' certain 
Fossils are peculiar to and are only found lodged in particular Strata, 
and who first ascertained the constancy in the order of superposition, 
and the continuity of the Strata of this Island.' " 
These numerous PubUc Exhibitions and Explanations of Maps, 
Sections, and Specimens of all the Organized Fossils which identify 
the Strata ; and Presents thereof with their Localities written on them, 
could not fail to increase and extend the most useful knowledge on 
the subject ; so that Boys of 14 have acquired the Rudiments of the 
Science, without a word of instruction from me. So industriously and 
successfully has the Science of British Geology been taught that 
Hundreds have become practically acquainted with it, without even 
Books or " Hard Names." These are proofs of the simphcity and 
usefulness of the Science of Geology over any other Science yet es- 
tablished. 
The gratification of curiosity, and the satisfactory results of 
investigation, have ahke engaged the young and the old in these 
pursuits. The acquirement of this useful knowledge in the country is 
thus rendered very famihar, and every Cabinet of Curiosities becomes 
tributary to the general stock of knowledge. 
