Thomas Belt
Thomas Belt
Early life
As a youth Belt became actively interested in natural history through the Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club. In 1852 he went to Australia and for about eight years worked at the gold-diggings, where he acquired a practical knowledge of ore deposits. In 1860 he proceeded to Nova Scotia to take charge of some gold-mines, and there met with a serious injury, which led to his return to England.[1]
In 1861 Belt issued a separate work entitled Mineral Veins: an Enquiry into their Origin, founded on a Study of the Auriferous Quartz Veins of Australia. Later on he was engaged for about three years at
Nicaragua
In 1868 he was appointed to take charge of some mines in Nicaragua, where he passed four active and adventurous years the results being given in his The Naturalist in Nicaragua (1874),[3] a widely regarded work. Henry Walter Bates gave assistance and supervised the book's printing by the publishing house J. Murray. In this volume the author expressed his views on the former presence of glaciers in Nicaragua.[1]
In this book, he also first described the mutualistic relationship of certain Acacias and the ant we now know as
In subsequent papers Belt dealt boldly with the phenomena of the glacial period in Britain and in various parts of the world.[1]
Death and burial
After many further expeditions to Russia, Siberia and Colorado, he was traveling to Colorado for a professional engagement when he fell suddenly ill and died in Denver, on 21 September 1878, at the age of 45. He was buried there in the Riverside Cemetery in Denver.[5]
Notes
- ^ a b c d Chisholm 1911.
- S2CID 4010944.
- ^ "Review of The Naturalist in Nicaragua, with Observations on Animals and Plants by Thomas Belt". The Athenaeum (2410): 23–24. 3 January 1874.
- ^ Zuchowski, Willow (2005). A Guide to the Tropical Plants of Costa Rica. Distribuidores Zona Tropical, S.A: Miami, FL.
- ISBN 1-59605-217-1.
References
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Belt, Thomas". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 712. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- Lee, Sidney (1885). "Belt, Thomas". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 4. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 204.
External links
- Works by Thomas Belt at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Thomas Belt at Internet Archive
- The naturalist in Nicaragua (London, J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd, 1911)