140 Correspondence — Br. Sterry Sunt. 



buried under a talus of gravel. I have never seen it exposed ; but 

 I once collected a considerable number of specimens from the spot, 

 after Mr. Keeping had been digging there, and his spoil heaps had 

 been washed by the rain. The specimens have usually a peculiar 

 pinkish hue, by which they may be identified in a collection. 



0. Fisher. 



DE. STEKRY HUNT. 



Sir, — We have just said good-bye to a distinguished American 

 geologist, whose visit to Europe deserves a passing notice in these 

 pages. Dr. Sterry Hunt has been long well known among us by 

 his numerous papers on Geology, Chemistry, and Physics. There 

 is a freshness and vigour about him that makes him welcome at any 

 scientific gathering, and a clearness of exposition and openness of 

 communication that forces even those who do not agree with all his 

 conclusions to admit that at any rate his work tends always to clear 

 away error and suggest new directions and methods of search after 

 truth. 



Thomas Sterry Hunt was born in Norwich, Connecticut, New 

 England, in 1826, and educated at Yale College, New Haven, where, 

 under the late Professor Silliman, he devoted himself to Chemistry, 

 Mineralogy, and Greology. In 1847 he became a member of the 

 Geological Survey of Canada, on which he remained until he was 

 called to Boston as Professor of Geology in 1872. This post he 

 held till 1878, when he resigned his official duties, and returned to 

 Montreal to devote himself more completely to professional and 

 scientific work. During his former residence in Canada Dr. Hunt 

 had successively occupied professorial chairs in the Laval University, 

 Quebec, and that of McGill, at Montreal, and from these Universities 

 had received the degrees of Doctor of Sciences and Doctor of Laws. 

 He is also Master of Arts of Harvard University, Member of the 

 National Academy of Sciences of the United States, and of the 

 Amei'ican Philosophical Society, and has been for more than twenty 

 years a F.E.S. He is an officer of the French Legion of Honour, 

 and has received many recognitions of his services from foreign 

 Academies and Societies. 



Dr. Hunt's work during twentj^-five years has been in great part 

 devoted to the Geology and Economic Mineralogy of Canada. During 

 this period his published investigations into more purely scientific 

 questions also have been numerous and important, at first in the 

 direction of organic and theoretical chemistry, and later in mineralogy, 

 lithology, and chemical geology ; his aim being from the study of 

 the chemistry of waters, sediments, and crystalline rocks, to construct 

 a rational theory of the processes which have presided over the early 

 growth and development of the earth's crust, a study which he 

 designates mineral 'physiology. In this connexion he has made 

 important contributions to cosmic chemistry and physics. We owe 

 to him also in great part the advance which has been made in the 

 grouping and classification on lithologieal and stratigraphical grounds 

 of the crystalline bedded rocks which present in their succession a 



