23G MKMOin OF THOMAS 15KLT, F.tt.S., 



as the authority for the habitats of some of the rarer plants of 

 tlie district. On more than one occasion, his old master, ^Ir. 

 Storey, acknowledges his obligations to him for help on these 

 points. 



In October, 1851, he discovered at Ryton a plant, new to the 

 district, the Frog-Bit, Ilijdrocharus 3forsm-rana:. We also find 

 liim communicating lists of his captures amongst the Lepidop- 

 tera to the Club. 



About this time the discovery of gold had been made in 

 Australia, and, like a great many more, Mr. Belt left Tyneside 

 for the new El Dorado. 



This step, we may say, was the turning point in his life, and 

 had a great influence on his future career. During liis resi- 

 dence in Australia, although at a time when the whole colony 

 was moved by the gold-fever, the same quiet habits of observa- 

 tion which marked him on Tyneside are seen. The new aspects 

 of Nature with which he was brought into contact in Australia 

 aroused his spirit of investigation, and in 1857 he was reading 

 before the Philosophical Institute of Victoria a paper on the 

 Origin of Whirlwinds. This paper is printed in tlie Philo- 

 sopliical ^[agazinc for 1859, to which periodical it was com- 

 municated by the Astronomer lioyal. 



The auriferous quartz veins of Austi'alia he made his peculiar 

 study, the results of which he embodied in a work on ' ' Mineral 

 Veins. An enquiry into their origin.'' This book he published 

 in 1861, and it at once lifted him into the position of an autho- 

 rity on the subject. 



On his return to England, his services were greatly in request 

 as a Mining-engineer, to wliich profession he now devoted liim- 

 self, with an establishment in London. In the prosecution of 

 his labours lie travelled over both Asia and America ; and in liis 

 long wanderings his keen powers of observation were ever on 

 the alert to enlarge the domain of human knowledge. 



In 18G3 Mr. Belt went to Nova Scotia, where he had the 

 .superintendence of the Nova-Scotian Gold Company's Mines. 

 Hero the great ghicial phenomena of North-America were un- 

 folded to lii.s view, and to tlie study of them he devoted himself 



