The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-03-29

William Smith, an English surveyor,
was a self-taught man, and perhaps tho
moro Independent for that, and no had tho
giit besides his sharp eyes and receptive
ihind OF most tenacious memory. by
exercising these faculties, rare as they
are homcly, he led the way to. n science
which was destined I'm its later develop
ments, to shake the structure of estab-
lished thought TO its foundations.
Little enough did William smith sus-
pect, however, that any such dire conse-
qucnces were 90 come of his act when he
first began noticing the fossil shells that
here and there are 10 be found in the
stratifled rocks and soils Of the regions
over which his surveyors duties led him,
Nor indeed, was there anything OF such
apparent revolutionary character in the
facts which he unearthed; yet in their
implications these facts were the most
disconcerting OF any that had been re-
vealcd since the day of Copernicus and
Calico. In its bald essence smiths dis
coyery was simply thiS that the fossils In
the rocks, instead of being scattered hap
hazard, are arranged in regular systems
SO that any given stratum of rock Is
labeled by its fossil population; and that
the order of succession of such groups OF
fossils is always the same in any vertical
series of strata in which they occur. That
Is TO say, If fossil A underlies fossil B in
any given region, it never overlies it in
any other series; though a kind OF fossils
found i'm one set of strata may be quito
omitted in another Moreover, fossil
once having disappeared, never rcappears
In any later stratum.
From those novel facts Smith drew the
common-sensc inference that the earth
had had successive populations of crea-
lures, each of which in its turn had be-
come extinct Ho partically verified this
inference by comparing the fossil shells
with existing species Of similar orders,
and found that such as occur in olden
strata of the rocks had no counterparts
among living species. But on the whole
being emincntly n practical man, smith
troubled himself but little about the In
ferences that might be drawn from his
facts. He was chiefly concerned In using
the key he had discovered ms an aid to the
construction of the first geological map
of England ever attempted, and he left to
Others the untangling of any snarls OF
thought that might seem to arise from his
discovery of the succession OF varying
forms of life on the globe.
He disseminated his views far and
wide, however, in the course of his jour
ncyings-qute disregarding the fact that
heripatetcs went out Of fashion when
the printing press came in-and by the
beginning of our century he had begun
TO have following among the geologists
of England. 1t must not for moment
be supposed, however, that his contention
regarding the succession of strata met
with immediate or general acceptance.
On the contrary, it was most bitterly
antagonized. For long generation after
the discovery was made, the generality
of men, prone as always To strain at
gnats and swallow, camels, preferred TO
believe that the fossils instead of being
deposited in successive ages, had been
swept all at once into their present posi-
tions by the current Of mighty flood
and that flood, needless To say, the
Noachian deluge. just how the number
less successive strata could have been laid
down in orderly sequence to the depth of
several miles in one such fell cataclysm
was indeed puzzlipg, especially after 1t
came to be admitted that the heaviest
fossils were not found always at the bot
tom; but to doubt that this had been
done in some way was rank hcresy in the
early days Of eur country.-From
archaeological Progress Of the Cen
tury' by Henry Smith a. Williams, Nj.
d., in Harper's Magazine for April.