WILLIAM SMITH COLLECTION. 
7 
and Wales, comprising also a part of Scotland, measures Gallery XL 
8 feet 9 inches by 6 feet 2 inches. Several sections across 
England, published by Smith in 1819, are placed on the 
wall around his bust. Here also are reproductions of the 
first small sketch for the larger map coloured by him in 
1801, of a map of the country around Bath coloured geologi- 
cally by him in 1799, and of a table of strata dictated by 
him in the same year.* The original MSS. of tliese were 
presented by Smith to the Geological Society in 1831. 
Smith’s views on the value of fossils to the geologist and 
surveyor were enunciated in his works “ Strata identified by 
organised fossils,” of which four parts only were published 
(4to, 1816-1819), and “ Stratigraphical system of organised 
fossils” (4to, 1817). A set of the plates from the former 
work is exhibited in the Case below Smith’s bust and in a 
frame on the adjoining wall. The different colours to the 
backgrounds of the plates are the same as those employed by 
Smith in his geological map, and have continued in general 
use, with many of our common geological names for 
British formations, such as Lias, Greensand, Coral Bag, and 
Cornbrash, all of which were adopted by him from the local 
terms in use by quanymeu and others. The fossils illus- 
trated in these works, with many others collected by Smith, 
are contained in the same cabinet, and form the most 
characteristic memorial of one who was justly termed by 
Adam Sedgwick “ the father of English geology.” 
Besides the William Smith Collection, acquired by the 
Trustees in 1816 and 1818, there are arranged in the Table- 
cases of this Gallery eight other collections of special interest 
as bearing either on the early history of the British Museum 
or the study of geology and palaeontology in this country. 
At the end of the Gallery will be found the oldest and. Table-case 
in some res))ects, the most interesting of these, under the 
heading The Sloane Collection. Here are still retained in 
their old association just one hundred specimens out of the 
large series that once formed the museum of Sir Hans Sloane 
(1660-1753), who by the terms of his will, may be considered 
the first founder of the British Museum, since he offered his 
collection to the nation for the relatively small sum of 
£20,000, in order “ that it might be preserved and maintained, 
not only for the inspection and entertainment of the learned 
and the curious, but for the general use and benefit of the 
* See J. W. Judd: “William Smith’s Manuscript Maps,” Geological 
Magazine, 1897, p. 439. 
