A404 Miscellanies. 
have found his letters rich in thought, and vivid and attractive in style, 
while a warm and true philanthropy imparted a living moral interest to 
his epistles. 
A great degree of modest retirement characterized Mr. Bakewell’s 
intercourse with society, and he carried it to such an extent as rarely 
to visit the sessions of any of the scientific bodies in London. This 
may serve to explain the fact that his treatise on geology was at first 
received with more favor in this country than in England. 
7. Death of Prof. Hall.—Professor F. Hall, whose name has often 
appeared in our pages as a contributor of valuable matter, died du- 
ring a journey at the west, in the month of August last. We have 
no information of the exact time of his’death, nor his age, which how- 
ever was not far from sixty. Prof. Hall was a zealous cultivator of 
mineralogy ; he collected a large and valuable cabinet, which a few 
years since he generously gave to Dartmouth College, at Hanover, 
N. H., and at the same time he placed the chair of mineralogy in that 
institution on a permanent foundation, by the contribution of five thou- 
sand dollars in money. 
8. Death of Mr. J. N. Nicollet.—It is also our painful task to re- 
cord the decease of Mr. Nicollet, who died at Washington, D. C., on 
Monday morning, the 11th of September, a little after six o’clock, aged 
it is supposed about forty eight. Mr. Nicollet’s labors in the depart- 
ments of physical astronomy and geography are well known. He was 
the favorite pupil and friend of La Place; and the frequent occur- 
rence of his name in the Mécanique Celeste, shows in what estimation 
he was held by his teacher. 
Mr. Nicollet came to this country about ten years since, and has 
been engaged principally in carrying out a survey—geographical, topo- 
graphical, astronomical, and geological—of the vast region embraced 
by the sources of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. 
His map of this important labor was completed before his death, and 
was shown by him at the Association of American Geologists in April 
last, at Albany, and referred to in explanation of an interesting paper 
on the geology of the region in question, an abstract of which is con- 
tained in their proceedings, in the present volume of this Journal. 
Mr. Nicollet also devoted much effort to the collection and preserva- 
tion of the various Indian dialects, and in fact every thing which could 
illustrate the history of this interesting race. It is said his collections 
of MS. notes on this subject are quite voluminons. 
All who had the pleasure of knowing him, and enjoying his fine 
social and moral qualities, will hear of his premature loss with deep 
regret. 
