Heroes of science

by P. Martin Duncan

“My experience in what I had done upon the Somersetshire map was sufficient to convince me that to make a map of the strata on a scale as large as Cary’s England (five miles to an inch), with sufficient accuracy, much of it should first be drawn on a larger scale.”

It was fortunate for Mr. Smith, and for the progress of his views, that he gained at this time the friendship of a man singularly competent to estimate the truth and value of these views, and both able and willing to advocate the merit of their author. The Rev. Benjamin Richardson was at this time living in Bath, and possessed a choice collection of local fossils, mostly gathered by his own diligent hands. Extensively versed in natural history, and generally well acquainted with the progress of science, he was perfectly enthusiastic in following out, and liberal in enabling others to prosecute, new and ingenious researches, especially if they tended to practical and public good. He knew accurately the country in which Mr. Smith had principally worked, and was acquainted with the views entertained on the subject of fossils, which had been recorded in books, or were adopted by the collectors, who were even then celebrated in the vicinity of Bath. He had no knowledge of the laws of stratification and the connection between the forms of organic life and the order of superposition of the strata; while, on the other hand, his new friend had very little knowledge of the true nature of these organic forms, and their exact relation to analogous living types. The result of a meeting between two such reciprocally adjusted minds was an electric combination; the fossils which the one possessed were marshalled in the order of strata by the other, until they all found their appropriate places, and the arrangement of the cabinet became a true copy of nature.

That such fossils had been found, in such rocks, was immediately acknowledged by Mr. Richardson to be true, though the connection had not before presented itself to his mind; but when Mr. Smith added the assurance, that everywhere throughout this district, and to considerable distances around, it was a general law that the “same strata were found always in the same order of superposition and contained the same peculiar fossils,” his friend was both astonished and incredulous. He immediately acceded to Mr. Smith’s proposal for undertaking some field examinations to determine the truth of these assertions, and having interested in the object a new and learned associate, the Rev. Joseph Townsend (author of “Travels in Spain”), they at once executed the project. Among other places visited with this view was the detached hill on which Dundry Church is conspicuously elevated. From its form and position in respect of the lias of Keynsham, Mr. Smith had inferred that this hill was capped by the lowest of the Bath “freestones” (inferior oolite); and, from his general views, he expected to find in that rock the fossils which the freestones contained near Bath; that is to say, on the westward rise, which he believed to affect all the strata near Bath above the coal. It is needless now to say, that examination confirmed both the inference of the character of the rock and the conformity of its organic contents. The effect of this and other illustrations of the reality of Mr. Smith’s speculations was decisive. In general literature, and especially in natural history, Mr. Smith was immeasurably surpassed by his friends, but they acknowledged that, from his labours in a different quarter, a new light had begun to manifest itself in the previously dark horizon of geology, and they set themselves earnestly to make way for its auspicious influence.

What a step was made from the old ideas that fossils were sports of nature to the proof that during the long ages of the earth’s history every deposit of river mud, sea-shore sand, and marine collection contained relics of its age of accumulation; and that there has been a succession of animals and plants on the earth foreshadowing those that now exist.

One day, after dining together at the house of the Rev. Joseph Townsend, it was proposed by one of this triumvirate, that a tabular view of the main features of the subject, as it had been expounded by Mr. Smith, and verified and enriched by their joint labours, should be drawn up in writing. Richardson held the pen, and wrote down, from Smith’s dictation, the different strata according to their order of succession in descending order, commencing with the chalk, and numbered, in continuous series, down to the coal, below which the strata were not sufficiently determined, according to the scheme already noticed.

To this description of the strata was added, in the proper places, a list of the most remarkable fossils which had been gathered in the several layers of rock. The names of these fossils were principally supplied by Mr. Richardson, and are such as were then, and for a long time afterwards, familiarly employed in the many collections near Bath. Of the document thus jointly arranged each person present took a copy, under no stipulation as to the use which should be made of it, and accordingly it was extensively distributed, and remained for a long period the type and authority for the descriptions and order of superposition of the strata near Bath.

Years rolled on, and Smith’s wanderings over England and their results were laid down by him on a map, which was to be published. With regard to this map of the strata, it may be said that it was very trying work for the publisher as well as the author. The basis of the map, as already explained, was in many respects peculiar; the colouring of it was more so. Instead of the flat colouring ending in narrow defined edges usually employed for maps, Mr. Smith introduced a peculiar style of full tints for the edges of the strata, softened into the paler tint employed for the remainder of the area which they occupied on the surface. This new style of colouring gave a picturesque effect to the map, but required more than usual skill and patience to be correctly executed, and occasioned great trouble in examining the copies. The colouring of the map was thus rendered more expensive than had been anticipated, and notwithstanding the labour was well paid for, it was not always at first properly performed.

At length the difficulties inseparable from such a task were so far overcome, and this enormous labour was so far completed, that a coloured map of the strata of England and Wales was submitted to the consideration of the Society of Arts, supported by various testimonials of its general accuracy and value, in April and May, 1815. The result was the award of the premium of £50, which had been in vain offered for very many years for a work of this description—a reward which Mr. Smith might have claimed long ago, had not an honest desire to produce his work complete withheld the attempt. The map was published on the 1st of August, 1815, dedicated to Sir Joseph Banks, and from that hour the fame of its author as a great original discoverer in English geology was secured. Would that this epoch of his revived and enlarged reputation had also been the dawn of more prosperous fortunes, or that, satisfied with the degree in which he had accomplished his gigantic task, he had left to others the completion of his work, and devoted himself for a time to even the humblest of those professional labours by which he had been at least supported through oppressive difficulties, and by which he must have already grown comparatively rich but for the incessant drain of money in following up discoveries which no living man could reasonably hope to complete.

Science, indeed, is a mistress whose golden smiles are not often lavished on poor and enthusiastic suitors. The time for a strenuous exertion was indeed come. Geology had kept him poor by consuming all his professional gains; the neglect of his employers too often left these unpaid; in such a condition one unfortunate step was ruin, and that step was made. On the property which he had purchased near Bath, and which he had greatly improved, he was tempted to lay a railway for bringing the freestone of Comb down to the Coal Canal, to open new quarries of this stone, and to establish new machinery for cutting and shaping it for buildings. The project, which looked well at first, failed utterly by the unexpected deficiency of the stone, on whose good quality the whole success depended. The abandonment of this cherished scheme was followed by the compulsory sale of the still more cherished property, a load of debt remained to be discharged, and the miserable effects fell heavily on others besides himself. But there were not wanting persons of station, knowledge, and humanity, who, esteeming Mr. Smith and admiring his solitary and ceaseless industry, exerted themselves to save him from the sad fate which seemed to await him.