He constructed geological maps of Somerset and fourteen other English counties, to which the attention of the Board of Agriculture was called. They showed the surface outcrops of strata, and were intended to be of assistance in mining, roadmaking, canal construction, draining, and water supply. It was at the time of William Smith's scientific discoveries that the public interest in canal transportation was at its height in England, and his study of the strata was a direct outcome of his professional activity. He called himself a mineral surveyor, and he traveled many thousand miles yearly in connection with his calling and his interest in the study of geology. In 1815 he completed an extensive geological map of England, on which all subsequent geological maps have been modeled. It took into account the collieries, mines, canals, marshes, fens, and the varieties of soil in relation to the substrata.
Later (1816-1819) Smith published four volumes, _Strata Identified by Organized Fossils_, which put on record some of his extensive observations. His mind was practical and little given to speculation. It does not lie in our province here to trace his influence on Cuvier and other scientists, but to add his name as a surveyor and engineer to the representatives of mineralogy, chemistry, physics, mathematics, philosophy, and various industries and vocations, which contributed to the early development of modern geology.
Sir Charles Lyell, _Principles of Geology_.
John Playfair, _Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory_.
K. A. v. Zittel, _History of Geology and Palæontology_.
SCIENCE AND RELIGION--KANT, LAMBERT, LAPLACE, SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL
Hutton had advanced the study of geology by concentrating attention on the observable phenomena of the earth's crust, and turning away from speculations about the origin of the world and the relation of this sphere to other units of the cosmos. In the same century, however, other scientists and philosophers were attracted by these very problems which seemed not to promise immediate or demonstrative solution, and through their studies they arrived at conclusions which profoundly affected the science, the ethics, and the religion of the civilized world.