Thomas Belt

Thomas Belt (1832 – 21 September 1878), an English geologist and naturalist, was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1832, and educated in that city. He is remembered for his work on the geology of gold bearing minerals, glacial geology, and for his description of the mutualistic relationship between certain bullthorn Acacia species and their Pseudomyrmex ants.

Early life

As a youth Belt became actively interested in natural history through the Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club. In 1852 he went to Australia and for about eight years worked at the gold-diggings, where he acquired a practical knowledge of ore deposits. In 1860 he proceeded to Nova 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 and fossils of the Lingula Flags, his observations being published in an important and now classic memoir in the Geological Magazine for 1867. He was elected in 1866 a Fellow of the Geological Society of London.

Nicaragua

In 1868 he was appointed to take charge of some mines in Nicaragua, where he passed four active and adventurous years the results being given in his The Naturalist in Nicaragua (1874), a widely regarded work. Henry Walter Bates gave assistance and supervised the book's printing by the publishing house J. Murray. In this volume the author expressed his views on the former presence of glaciers in Nicaragua.