ALFRED BELL.
211
England, on Fossil Tertiary Polyzoa, on the Irish Drifts and
the Post Pliocene deposits on either side of the Irish Sea, on the
shells of the Thames valley gravels, on British Upper Tertiary
Corals, on a synopsis of the Tertiary Crustacea and Echinoder-
mata, on the Marine gravels of Wexford, and on the deposit in
Largos Bay, Fife, and at Portrush, Antrim; also on the Glacial
fauna of King William, Banffshire, on some Mollusca new to the
Barnwell gravels, and on the Preglacial deposits and shells of
Manxland. He also compiled a MSS. Zoological and Strati-
graphical catalogue of Upper Tertiary British fossils, which was
acquired by the Museum of Practical Geology.
Both the Bells were born collectors and conchologists; no
distance was too great, no conditions too difficult to prevent
their carrying out their favourite pursuits. Of Alfred Bell,
Mr. E. T. Newton, late of the Museum of Practical Geology,
writes:—"He was often at the Jermyn St. Museum. I never
remember any one who had such a capacity for seeing minute
differences in the shells of the Mollusca. He was keen in col-
lecting Crag fossils from definite localities and persistent in
regarding such localities as of varying ages, which is now generally
accepted, but was not recognized at that time. By extensive
travel and correspondence Alfred Bell became personally familiar
not only with the Pliocene deposits of the Eastern Counties, but
with all the important Pliocene and Pleistocene shell-bearing
beds of Gt. Britain and Ireland and the Isle of Man. He had
also some personal acquaintance with the Continental Pliocene
fauna of Holland and Belgium, and had visited the Rhine valley
and studied the collections in Paris. His work made him well
known to a very wide circle of scientific workers and collectors.
Sir Charles Lyell gave him free access to his cabinets, and he was
personally known and helped by the great geologists of the time,
Murchison, Sedgwick, Owen, and many others."
Never in affluent circumstances and compelled to earn a
living from a comparatively early age, his scientific tastes made
ordinary commercial life uncongenial to him, and he eventually
carried on business as a professional collector and dealer in
antiquities and scientific material. Later on, he worked for a
number of years for Mr. Butler, the well-known dealer in minerals,
etc., and subsequently for Messrs. Hammer, the educational
apparatus manufacturers, for whom he compiled the handbooks