The possessor of all these generalizations, now (1795) twenty-six years of age, was still shrouded in the obscure village of High Littleton, but in this year he removed to Bath, and took up his abode in the central house of a short range of buildings called the Cottage Crescent, which occupied a picturesque and elevated site south of that city. “From this point,” says he, “the eye roved anxiously over the interesting expanse which extended before me to the Sugar-loaf mountain in Monmouthshire, and embraced all in the vicinities of Bath and Bristol. Then did a thousand thoughts occur to me, respecting the geology of that and adjacent districts continually under my eye, which have never been reduced to writing.” He continued to direct all the operations on the Somerset Coal Canal, and very copious note-books attest the constancy and exactitude of his attention to that occupation. To this cause, indeed, may be ascribed the extreme rarity of any essays, or even memoranda, from which the progress of his geological studies can be gathered. That in January, 1796, he had begun to commit his thoughts to paper, in a lucid arrangement for publication, the written proofs remain. In 1797 he drew a larger general plan for such a work; but not till 1799, after his engagement ceased with the Coal Canal Company, did he make public his intention to compose a general work on the stratification of Britain, or enter on the prosecution of an actual survey of the geological structure of the whole of England and Wales. In the execution of the canal, Mr. Smith had found the means of applying his newly acquired knowledge to useful practical problems, such as how to draw the line through a country full of porous rocks, so as best to retain the limited supplies of water which frequent mills left to the navigation, where to place bridges on a good foundation, how to intercept and conduct the springs, and where to open quarries of proper stone. We find him also engaged, as early as 1796, in the short intervals which could be snatched from the main business before him, in putting to practical proof his theoretical views of the earth’s structure and the properties of the mixed calcareous and argillaceous strata in the hills near Bath, by a new and successful process of land-draining. The earliest connected remarks which have been found, bear the date of January, 1796, and relate to organic remains and their distribution in the different strata. The vicinity of Bath is rich in fossils, and fine collections were formed there previous to Mr. Smith’s researches. It might be after inspecting some of these treasures, whose full value was so entirely unknown to their owners, that the following reflections, which strikingly illustrate the enlarged state of his own views at that period, were penned:— “Dunkerton, Swan, Jan. 5, 1796.