6 LIAS OF ENGLAND AND WALES: 
An excellent description of the Oolitic strata of parts of 
Gloucestershire, Somersetshire and Wiltshire, accompanied by 
plates of many of the fossils, was published in 1813 by the Rev. 
Joseph Townsend, vicar of Pewsey. The tiile of this work* 
unfortunately obscured its character, for the geological facts were 
based largely on information furnished by William Smith, and 
it thus contains the earliest record of his more important 
observations. The prominent or characteristic fossils of the 
Oolites, clown to the Fuller's Earth Rock, were subsequently 
figured by William Smith in his " Strata Identified by Organic 
Remains, " of which only four parts were published (1816-1819). 
In the meanwhile, Sowerby's Mineral Conchology, of which the first 
volume was published in 1812. gave a new impetus to the collection 
and study o fossils ; and several enthusiastic geologists about this 
time entered the field, among whom may be mentioned Thomas 
Webster, William Buckl-md, W. D. Conybeare, Adam Sedgwick, 
followed by W. H. Fitton, H. T. De la Beche, R. I. Murchison, 
William Lonsdale, and John Phillips. 
William Phillips had in 1818 published < A Section of Facts 
from the best authorities, arranged so as to form an Outline of 
the Geology of England and Wales " (accompanied by a Table of 
Strata by Buckland) ; and he was joined in 1822 by Conybeare in 
the preparation of a second edition of this celebrated work, 
which became the " scientific bible " of many a zealous worker, t 
Conybeare was mainly responsible for the Jurassic, as well as 
other portions of this new edition, and having adopted the group- 
ing of William Smith for the Jurassic rocks, " their provincial 
names have become classic throughout Europe." J In those days, 
however, the term Oolites or Oolitic Series was employed as a 
general term to include both Lias and Oolites. 
It is unnecessary here to give a full account of the further 
progress of Jurassic geology in this country; nor could justice be 
done to the subject without reference to the work of geologists on 
the Continent. A list of works on the Jurassic geology of 
Britain, will be given in the final volume of this Memoir, and 
particular acknowledgment will also be made, in due course, of 
the labours of the many geologists who have contributed to our 
knowledge of the Liassic and Oolitic strata of this country. 
Subdivisions of the Jurassic rocks. 
Tiie subdivisions of the Jurassic rocks, established by William 
Smith, were based mainly on his observations in Somersetshire and 
Wiltshire. They are stratigraphical divisions, composed sometimes 
of thick strata comparatively uniform in lithological character, at 
* The Character f Moses established for veracity as an Historian, recording 
Events from the Creation to the Deluge. 2 vols. 4to. London. 1813-1815. 
t Geikie's Life of Murchison, vol. i. p. 1?6. 
j Murchison, Address to Gaol. Soc., 1833, Proc. Geol. Soc., vol. ii. p. 447 ; and 
Kedgwiek, Address, 1830, Ibid., -\ol. I p. 200. 
See also C. Fox Strangways, Jurassic Rocks of Yorkshire, vol. i. p. 7. 
