BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
243 
Robert Hunt, F.R.S. 
Robert Hunt was born on the 6th September, 1807, at Devonport. 
His father, who was an officer of the navy, lost his life through the 
foundering of H.M.S. "Moncheron," in the Grecian Archipelago, 
shortly before his birth. He was educated in his native town, and 
subsequently at Penzance. At the age of 13 he was sent to London 
and placed with a chemist at the West End. He remained in this 
situation about a year and a half, and then returned to Penzance. 
He afterwards returned again to London, and went as a pupil to Dr. 
Charles Smith, with whom he remained live or six years, and during 
this time gained a tolerably good knowledge of pharmacy and 
dispensing chemistry. An attack of illness rendered it necessary 
that Hunt should again leave London, and he returned to Cornwall, 
and the death of his grandfather gave him possesion of a small 
property on the banks of the River Foy. He spent several months in 
pedestrian travel through the countrj^, and gleaned a large number of 
stories from the country people, which many years afterwards were pub- 
lished under the title of ''Romances and Drolls of Devon and Corn- 
wall." On returning to London he secured a situation with a firm 
of chemical manufacturers, and from this time seems to have 
devoted his attention to scientihc pursuits. He was impressed by 
the discovery of Daguerre, and made many experiments in photo- 
graphy, some of his results being published in the Pliilosophkal 
Magazine. In 1840 he received the appointment of secretary to the 
Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, and this brought him into close 
relationship with the miners of the Western Counties. The work of 
this office, combined with constant travelling and lecturing on 
scientific and other subjects, resulted in the acquisition of a gTeat 
deal of knowledge relating to mines and mining, and in the year 
1845 he received the appointment from Sir Henry De La Beche of 
Keeper of the Mining Records under the Geological Survey. On the 
estabHshment of the Government School of Mines in 1851 he was 
appointed Lecturer on Mechanical Science, and two years later 
Lecturer on Physics. His main work has been in connection with 
the Mining Record Office, and he compiled and published a gTeat 
number of statistics relating to mines. Towards the close of his life 
