96 Obituary—Mr. Thomas Davies. 
THOMAS DAVIES, F.G.S. 
Born DecemBer 29, 1837. Diep DecemsBer 21, 1892, 
By the death of Mr. Tuomas Davies, Senior Assistant in the 
Mineralogical Department of the British Museum (Natural History), 
Mineralogy in this country loses one of its most accomplished 
students. He was the son of the late Mr. William Davies, for 
forty years connected with the Geological Department of the same 
Museum, and began his career as an Attendant under Professor 
Maskelyne in 1858. For several years Davies was the only 
member of the Museum staff deputed to assist the Professor in 
arranging the collection of minerals after its severance from the 
Geological Department, and he rapidly acquired that knowledge 
of mineral species for which he became so noted in later years. 
In 1862 he was promoted to the rank of Transcriber, and in 1880 
he received the well-merited reward of appointment to a senior 
assistantship. Mr. Davies was a prominent member of the 
Mineralogical Society, acting for some years as Hditor of the 
‘¢ Mineralogical Magazine,” and later filling the office of Foreign 
ts) to} fo) fo) ; 
Secretary. Besides mineralogical notes, he published several con- 
tributions to the petrology of the older rocks, and in 1880 he 
was awarded the Wollaston Donation Fund by the Geological 
Society of London, ‘as a testimony of the value of his researches 
in mineralogy and lithology, and to assist him in the further 
examination of the microscopial structure of rocks.” Although 
not a copious writer himself, Mr. Davies was well-known for the 
valuable assistance and information he was ever ready to afford 
to others, and it was in this capacity that he won the thanks and 
regard of so many geologists. 
A Memorial on bebalf of his widow and family, initiated by 
the Members of the Mineralogical Society, is, we understand, in 
progress, of which Dr. Hugo Miller, F.R.S., V.P.C.S., 13, Park 
Square Hast, Regent’s Park, N.W., is Treasurer, and Mr. Henry A. 
Miers, F.G.S., F.R.S., of the Mineral Department, British Museum 
(Nat. Hist.), Cromwell Road, 8.W., is the Secretary. 
IMEI} Si Oe ssh eA IN pss OOS 
A RemarKaBLE Serine in Lincotnsarre.— An extraordinary 
success in artesian-well-boring has just been accomplished at 
Willoughby, in Lincolnshire. Owing to an inadequate water-supply 
for the locomotives running on the Sutton and Willoughby Railway, 
the Company decided to bore. At a depth of 245 feet from the 
surface the workmen struck upon, a bed of ironstone, which took 
them a considerable time to penetrate, but beneath this rock a 
magnificent spring was met with. For some time the water threw 
out tons of blue sand, but it eventually cleared, and it now flows 
over the top of a 24 inch tube 30 feet above the ground at the 
rate of 4619 gallons per hour, or 14 gallons per second. The spring 
is said to be the strongest yet obtained in Lincolnshire.—Morning 
Post, January 25, 1898. 
