NOTES. 



255 



wicked indulgences, they performed their 

 duty till the measuring-worms ceased to be, 

 and the place that knew them knows them 

 no more. Go on, good sparrow ! " But we 

 have not the space to give the eloquent 

 apostrophe in which the author encourages 

 the sparrow to go on with his good work. 



Death of Mr. Thomas Belt.— With deep 

 regret we have to announce the death of 

 Thomas Belt, geologist and naturaUst. He 

 died, September 22d, at Denver, Colorado, 

 of rheumatic fever. The following bio- 

 graphical notice is from the London Athe- 

 ncBuni : " The son of the late Mr. George 

 Belt, nurseryman and seedsman of New- 

 castle-upon-Tyne, Thomas Belt was a prac- 

 tical botanist almost from his infancy, and 

 his scientific tastes were further developed 

 in the two schools which he attended — the 

 earliest presided over by Dr. J. C. Bruce, 

 of antiquarian fame, and the second by the 

 late John Storey, a man second to none of 

 his day as a north-country botanist. In 

 the latter establishment young Belt had as 

 schoolfellows two boys who have since 

 stamped their names in the annals of sci- 

 ence — Prof. G. S. Brady and H. B. Brady, 

 F. R. S. la 1851 Thomas Belt joined in 

 the first great gold rush to Australia, and 

 since that time his life has been that of a 

 hard-working, successful mining engineer. 

 He visited all parts of the world in the 

 course of his profession, but whether as a 

 digger in Victoria, as a manager of mines 

 in Central America, or as a prospector in 

 the wilder parts of Russia, the engineer was 

 always a naturalist at heart. He was an 

 excellent observer, and a certain speculative 

 tendency led him to group his observations 

 so as to bring out their full theoretical bear- 

 ings. He was minutely accurate in his de- 

 scription of facts, and bold in his generali- 

 zations. He covered so much ground that 

 some of his theories may not bear the test 

 of further research, but some will stand, 

 and all bear witness to the singular grasp 

 of his mind. The chief results of his work 

 are to be found in his papers read before 

 the Geological Society (of which he became 

 a Fellow in 1866), and in a most interest- 

 ing book entitled ' The NaturaUst in Nica- 

 ragua,' and published in 1874. In biology 

 Mr. Belt was an advanced evolutionist, and 



in geology an- ultra-glacialist. In both 

 branches of science his papers were sugges- 

 tive m the highest degree. What he did 

 was so good that much was expected of 

 him, and his sudden loss is an irreparable 

 one to the rapidly-thinning group of emi- 

 nent Tyneside naturalists to which, by right 

 of birth, he belonged." 



NOTES. 



The American Public Health Associa- 

 tion will hold its sixth annual meeting at 

 Richmond, Virginia, beginning on the 19th 

 and ending on the 22d of November. The 

 first days of the session will be devoted to 

 the report and evidence submitted by the 

 Yellow Fever Commission recently named 

 by the Surgeon-General of the Marine Hos- 

 pital Service. 



The project of a railroad across New- 

 foundland is again being agitated. Such a 

 railroad would have the effect of shortening 

 by one thousand miles the ocean-voyage 

 from this continent to Europe. It is stated 

 in the Polytechnic Review that the Govern- 

 ment of Newfoundland has agreed to vote 

 an annual subsidy, and to make a grant of 

 lands in aid of the enterprise. Among the 

 incidental benefits to be derived from such 

 a line of railway may be named the opening •< 

 up of vast deposits of copper, iron, coal, 

 nickel, lead, and other minerals. Further- 

 more, it would cut through the great pine 

 and spruce forests of the interior of New- 

 foundland. 



Sir George Nares, who commanded the 

 expedition of the Alert and Discovery to the 

 polar regions, is about to make another 

 scientific voyage to the South Pacific. He 

 will first make soundings in the track of 

 navigation between New Zealand and Feejee, 

 and will then ascertain the positions of the 

 different reefs and islets off the northwestern 

 coast of Australia. 



Dr. J. S. Meter, of Virginia City, Neva- 

 da, claims that he has discovered the " lost 

 art," known to the ancient Egyptians, of 

 tempering copper so as to produce an edge 

 which will cut like steel. 



The Government in India is introducing 

 agricultural schools. The native methods 

 are wretchedly poor, and little wonder is it 

 that the famines are occasionally dreadful. 

 " The curse of Indian agriculture " is said 

 to be the inveterate custom in many places 

 of using the cattle-manure for fuel. To stop 

 this a law is recommended for the compul- 

 sory planting of fuel trees, which also would 

 have a good climatic effect. 



