The Work of the Geological Survey. 
141 
geology \Vas supplied with the means of determining the true 
succession of the stratified rocks, apart from mere lithological 
characters, which had previously been the only guide. Well may we 
look back upon that great pioneer as the Father of English Geology. 
In every department of the science we may trace the direct or 
indirect influence of his fruitful labours. But in no branch of 
investigation has this influence been more profound than in geological 
map-making, and in the assistance which geological maps have 
furnished to the onward progress of the science. The earliest truly 
geological map, as distinguished from its geognostical or mineralogical 
predecessors, was the famous map of England laboriously con- 
structed by Smith himself after years of patient investigation, and 
published in 1815-1819. The appearance of this map marks an 
epoch in the history of the science. It showed for the first time 
how the successive stratified formations of the earth’s crust could be 
recognised and traced, apart altogether from their varying mineral 
characters, and how the geological structure of one country could be 
logically compared with that of other countries. In fulness, accuracy, 
and artistic delineation, an enormous advance has been made during 
the last three generations in the construction of geological maps, 
but the initial impetus of this advance must unquestionably be traced 
to the early surveys of William Smith. 
We are all more or less familiar with the important share which 
this country has taken in the development of modern geology. It is 
perhaps not so generally recognised how much the science has been 
aided here by the early delineation of the geological features of the 
British Isles upon maps. What William Smith did for England 
and Wales, MacCulloch did for Scotland, and Griffith for Ireland. 
MacCulloch’s map, published in 1832, though less original than 
Smith’s, and bearing more evident trace of the influence of the older 
geognostical school of observers, was a remarkable achievement for 
a single observer in a region so complicated in its geological structure 
and, in the early decades of this century, so difficult to traverse. 
Griffith had the advantage of coming later into the field, when 
geological methods of observation had made considerable progress. 
His great map of Ireland, published in 1846, is consequently much 
more modern in its treatment of the subject. It will ever remain 
a monument of extraordinary industry, sagacious observation, and 
felicitous inference, employed in the investigation of a country 
where, save in a few detached areas, he was practically the first 
great pioneer. 
But it was not only in the British Isles that the necessity for 
geological maps was recognised as a basis for scientific progress in 
the investigation of the earth’s history. I need only refer to the 
first sketch of a geological map of France, Belgium, <fcc., by J. 
d’Omalius d’Halloy (1822), to the excellent map of France by 
Dufrdnoy and Elie de Beaumont (1840-42), and to the early maps 
of Desmarest, Dumont, Yon Dechen, Naumann, and other carto- 
graphers in different parts of Europe. 
Even the best of these early maps were confessedly mere outlines. 
