PREFACE  v - vii   v  vi  vii



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Introduction. Geological ideas among the Greeks and Romans in regard to (i) Underground forces; (ii) Processes at work on the surface of the earth; (iii) Proof of geological changes in the Past,  pp. 1-41



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Growth of geological ideas in the Middle Ages -- Avicenna and the Arabs. Baneful influence of theological dogma. Controversy regarding the nature of Fossil Organic Remains. Early observers. in Italy -- Leonardo da Vinci, Falloppio, Steno, Moro. The English cosmogonists -- Burnet, Whiston, Woodward. Robert Hooke, John Ray, Martin Lister, Robert Plot, Edward Lhuyd,  pp. 42-78



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Scientific Cosmogonists -- Descartes, Leibnitz. Speculations of De Maillet and Buffon. Early illustrated works on fossil plants and animals -- Lang, Scheuchzer, Knorr, Waich, Beringer, pp. 79-103


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The Rise of Geology in France -- Palissy. The labours of Guettard,  pp. 104-139



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The Foundation of Volcanic Geology -- Desmarest,  pp. 140-175



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The Rise of Geological Travel -- Pallas, De Saussure,  pp. 176-191



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History of the Doctrine of Geological Succession -- Arduino, Lehmann, Füchsel, Werner,  pp. 192-236


 
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The Wernerian School of Geology -- Its great initial influence and subsequent decline. Effect of the controversy about the origin of Basalt upon this School. Early history of Volcanic Geology. History of opinion regarding Earthquakes,  pp. 237-279



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The Rise of the modern conception of the theory of the Earth -- Hutton, Playfair,  pp. 280-316



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Birth of Experimental Geology -- Sir James Hall. Decay of Wernerianism,  pp. 317-332

[325] There was established at Edinburgh a group of earnest and successful investigators of the history of the earth, who promulgated a new philosophy of geology, based upon close observation and carefully devised experiment. Among these men there was only one teacher -- the gentle and eloquent Playfair.



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The Rise of Stratigraphical Geology and of Palaeontology in France -- Giraud-Soulavie, Lamarck, Cuvier, Brongniart, and Omalius d'Halloy, pp. 333-377

[334] To [Hutton's] mind the earth revealed no trace of a beginning, no prospect of an end. All that he could see was the evidence of a succession of degradations and upheavals, by which the balance of sea and land and the habitable condition of our globe were perpetuated. Huton was unable to say how many of these revolutions may be chronicled among the rocks of the earth's crust. Nor did he discover any method by which their general sequence over the whole globe could be determined.

[336] The fact that different rocks contain dissimilar but distinctive fossils had been noted by various observeers long before its geological significance was perceived. Thus, as far back as 1671, we find Martin Lister affirming, that "quarries of different stone yield us quite different sorts or species of shells....

[358] [Discussing Lamarck's geological views] Every part of the earth's surface that has once been overspread by the sea has had twice a zone of littoral shells and once a deposit of pelagic shells, making three distinct and successive formations, representing the passage of a vast lapse of time. No sudden catastrophe is admissible as an explanation of the facts; such an event would have jumbled the organisms together and would have broken the more delicate shells, which have nevertheless been admirably preserved in great numbers among other fossils.

[374] [On Cuvier] "He recognized that there has been, on the whole, an upward progress among the races of animals that have successively flourished upon the earth. The oviparous quadrupeds, for instance, preceded the viviparous. But, unlike Lamarck, he set his face against evolution, and refused to admit that the existing races can be modifications of ancient forms, brought about by local circumstances, change of climate or other causes; for if any such evolution had taken place, he claimed that some evidence of it should have been found in the shape of intermediate forms in the rocks. He regarded species as permanent, though varieties might arise.



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The Rise of Stratigraphical Geology in England -- Michell, Whitehurst, William Smith, Thomas Webster, the Geological Society of London, W. H. Fitton, Early teachers and textbooks. Influence of Lyell,  pp. 378-405.

[378] While in France it was the prominence and richly fossiliferous character of the Tertiary strata which first led to the recognition of the value of fossils in stratigraphy, and to the definite establishment of the principles of stratigraphical geology, in England a similar result was reached by a study of the Secondary formations, which are not only more extensively developed there than theyounger series, but display more clearly their succession  and persistence.  But in both countries the lithological sequence, being the more obvious, was first established before it was confirmed and extended by a recognition of the value of the evidence of organic remains.

[380] While the stratigraphical sequence of the geological formations in England was partially realised by a few pioneers, its final establishment was the work of William Smith (1769-1839) -- usually known as the "Father of English geology." He definitely arranged the rocks in their true order from the Killas series (Cambrian and Silurian) of Wales up to the Tertiary groups of the London basin. ... No more interesting chapter in scientific annals can be found than that which traces the progress of this remarkable man, who, amidst endless obstacles and hindrances, clung to the idea which had early taken shape in his mind, and who lived to see that idea universally accepted as the guiding principle in the investigation of the geological structure, not of England only, but of Europe and of the globe.

[385] For six years William Smith was engaged in setting out and superintending the construction of the Somersetshire Coal Canal ... The constant and close observation which he was compelled to give to the strata that had to be cut through in making the canal, led him to give more special attention to the organic remains in them.... He came at last to perceive that, certainly among the formations with which he had to deal, "each stratum contained orgaanized fossils peculiar to itself, and might, in cases otherwise doubtful, be recognized and discriminated from others like it, but in a different part of the series."

[388] In the year 1799, William Smith made the acquaintance of the Rev. Benjamin Richardson, who, living in Bath, had interested himself in forming a collection of fossils from the rocks of the neighbourhood. Looking over this collection, the experienced surveyor was able to tell far more about its contents than the owner of it knew himself. Writing long afterwards to Sedgwick, Mr. Richardson narrated how Smith could decide at once from what strata they had respectively come, and how well he knew the lie of the rocks on the ground. "With the open liberality peculiar to Mr. Smith," he adds, "he wished me to communicate this to the Rev. J. Townsend of Pewsey (then in Bath), who was not less surprised at the discovery. But we were soon much more astonished by proofs of his own collecting, that whatever stratum was found in any part of England, the same remains would be found in it and no other. Mr. Townsend, who had pursued the subject forty or fifty years, and had travelled over the greater part of civilized Europe, declared it perfectly unknown to all his acquanitance, and, he believed, to all the rest of the world. In consequence of Mr. Smith's desire to make so valuable a discovery universally known, I without reserve gave a card of the english strata to Baron Rosencrantz, Dr. Müller of Christiania, and many others, in the year 1801."

The card of the English strata referred to in this letter was a tabular list of the formations from the Coal up to the Chalk, with the thicknesses of the several members, an enumeration of their characteristic fossils, and a synopsis of their special lithoogical peculiarities and scenery. This table was drawn up in triplicate by Mr. Richardson, at Smith's dictation, in the year 1799, each of the friends and Mr. Townsend taking a copy. Smith's copy was presented by him to the Geological Society of London in 1831.

Though not actually published, this table obtained wide publicity. It showed that the fundamental principiles of stratigraphy had been worked out by William Smith alone, and independently, before the end of the eighteenth century. He had demonstrated, as his friend and pupil Farey testified, "that the fossil productions of the strata are not accidentally distributed therein, but that each particular species has its proper and invariable place in some particular stratum; and that some one or more of these species of fossil shells may serve as new and more distinctive marks of the identity of most of the strata of England." Had Smith's table been printed and sold it would have established his claim to priority beyond all possibility of cavil.



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Progress of Stratigraphical Geology -- The Transition or Greywacke formation resolved by Sedgwick and Murchison into the Cambrian, Silurian and Devonian systems. The Primordial Fauna of Barrande. The pre-Cambrian rocks first begun to be set in order by Logan,  pp. 406-437



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Progress of Stratigraphical Geology continued -- Influence of Charles Darwin. Adoption of Zonal Stratigraphy of fossiliferous rocks. Rise of Glacial Geology, Louis Agassiz. Development of Geological map-making in Europe and North America,  pp. 438-461



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The Rise of Petrographical Geology -- William Nicol, Henry Clifton Sorby. Conclusion,   pp. 462-473

INDEX  474   474  475  476  477  478  479  480  481  482  483  484  485  486