Obituary — Arthur Roope Hunt, M.A., F.L.S., F.G.S. 141 



Mr. Edmund Gosse, writing of his father, Philip Henry Gosse (the 

 well-known author of many works on marine zoology), says : " When 

 he [Gosse] took sailing excursions he often had the company of 

 Mr. Arthur Hunt of Torquay, a young naturalist of knowledge and 

 enthusiasm who possessed a yacht, the Gannet, in which the friends 

 undertook frequent scientific excursions, especially over the sandy 

 zostera-heds in Torbay, among the little archipelago which lies off 

 Hope's Nose, at the mouth of Brixham Harbour, and off Berry Head." 



At 18 A. R. Hunt proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge, where 

 in 1864 he took his degree of M.A. He then studied law, "ate 

 his dinners " at the Inner Temple, and was duly " called to the Bar ", 

 but he never practised. 



After spending a few years in the business house of a cousin in the 

 city of London, he abandoned town permanently, and in 1874 

 settled down at Southwood, Torquay, only varying his residence to 

 visit his estate at Foxworthy, Moreton Hampstead. 



In 1870 he was elected F.G.S. , and in 1884 he became a Fellow of 

 the Linnean Society. 



In company with Mr. Pengelly he devoted much time to the 

 exploration of Kent's Cavern, and wrote many papers thereon. What 

 he learned from Pengelly he applied to the Scottish cave at Borness, 

 Kirkcudbrightshire, which he explored with the co-operation of 

 Adam Corrie & W. Bruce-Clarke, 1 a very complete and excellent 

 piece of cave-work. 



Accompanied by Pengelly, Tawney, and other of his friends, he 

 made numerous geological investigations in Devonshire and neigh- 

 bouring counties. He also specially studied the subject of ripple- 

 mark and its origin and the submarine geology of the English 

 Channel off the coast of Devon and Cornwall. Mr. Hunt secured 

 numerous rock-specimens brought in by the Brixham trawlers, many 

 of which were sliced and examined microscopically and reported 

 upon by him. With Mr. R. N. Worth he devoted special attention to 

 the age of the Dartmoor granites, the Devonian rocks of South Devon, 

 and the metamorphic schists and Lizard serpentines, and published 

 numerous papers thereon. Over these subjects he was both the giver 

 and the recipient of much keen criticism from General MacMahon, 

 Professor Bonney, and others. Many of these controversies were 

 carried on in the pages of the Geological Magazine, the Transactions 

 of the Devonshire Association (1892-7), and other journals. 



For many years he attended the meetings of the British Association, 

 and he took a keen interest in the papers read in the various sections, 

 and joined in the discussions with his usual enthusiasm. 



Like other able young men of science Hunt felt attracted by and 

 tempted to cope with questions relating to many and diverse branches of 

 research, and delighted, as the Athenians of old, " to tell or to hear of 

 some new thing." Had he devoted himself exclusively to any one of the 

 varied subjects he at times pursued with so much ardour, he might 

 have earned a more distinguished name for himself in science outside 

 Devonshire, where, and especially in Torquay, he will be long 



1 See Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scotland, vol. x, 1873-4, illustrated by six octavo plates 

 prepared from photographs by A. E. Hunt. 



