- Thomas Belt
right|thumb|Frontispiece of Belt's "The Naturalist in Nicaragua" (1874)Thomas Belt (1832-1878), an English
geologist and naturalist, was born atNewcastle-on-Tyne in 1832, and educated in that city.As a youth Belt became actively interested in
natural history through theTyneside Naturalists Field Club . In 1852 he went toAustralia and for about eight years worked at thegold -diggings, where he acquired a practical knowledge ofore deposits. In 1860 he proceeded toNova Scotia to take charge of some gold-mines, and there met with a serious injury, which led to his return to England.In 1861 Belt issued a separate work entitled "Mineral Veins: an Enquiry into their Origin, founded on a Study of the Auriferous Quartz Veins of Australia". Later on he was engaged for about three years at
Dolgelly , another though small gold-mining region, and here he carefully investigated the rocks andfossil s of theLingula Flags , his observations being published in an important and now classic memoir in the "Geological Magazine" for 1867. In the following year he was appointed to take charge of some mines inNicaragua , where he passed four active and adventurous years the results being given in his "The Naturalist in Nicaragua" (1874), a work of high merit. In this volume the author expressed his views on the former presence ofglacier s in that country. In subsequent papers he dealt boldly and suggestively with the phenomena of the Glacial period in Britain and in various parts of the world. After many further expeditions toRussia ,Siberia andColorado , he died atDenver on the 21st of September 1878 and was buried there in the Riverside Cemetery. [cite book|title=The Naturalist in Nicaragua|last=Belt|first=Thomas|page=p. xxii|publisher=Cosimo|date=2005|id=ISBN 1596052171]References
External links
*gutenberg author | id=Thomas_Belt | name=Thomas Belt
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