Major-General Riddell. 303 



In 1839 he left for Montreal vi& New York, narrowly escaping 

 shipwreck and still more narrowly the destruction of all the instru- 

 ments, in the confusion of throwing heavy stores overboard to lighten 

 the ship. His first work was to find a suitable site for the magnetic 

 observatory. Toronto was selected, as Montreal was much affected by 

 local magnetic disturbance, and there he superintended the building of 

 the observatory and mounted his instruments, both magnetical and 

 meteorological. In all this work and in the subsequent conduct of the 

 observations he proved to be both "active and resourceful." 



After a year's work, ill health, which so much affected his career 

 through life, obliged him to return to England, leaving the work he 

 had so well established in the hands of Lieutenant Younghusband, R. A. 



Sabine, with whom he had kept up a regular correspondence 

 during his time at Toronto, and who duly appreciated his services, 

 suggested and obtained his appointment as Assistant Superintendent 

 of Ordnance Magnetic Observatories at the Royal Military Repository 

 at Woolwich. It was here that the then Major Sabine superintended 

 the reduction and publication of the results obtained at the Colonial 

 Observatories, and with such a devoted and hardworking assistant his 

 labours must have been much lightened. It was here that Eiddell 

 carried on for over four years an extensive correspondence with the 

 prominent scientific men of all countries, as well as with the surveying 

 officers of the Royal Navy, on questions connected with terrestrial 

 magnetism and meteorology. 



During 1843 he spent three months in Germany, visiting those 

 with whom he had previously corresponded and also in studying the 

 military system of that country, for it must be remembered he was 

 distinctly a soldier, who, besides the science of his profession, had a 

 keen love for other branches of science. 



Whilst at the Woolwich Repository an excellent and most useful 

 work was compiled by him, entitled " Magnetical Instruction for the 

 use of Portable Instruments," and printed by order of the Lords 

 Commissioners of the Admiralty in 1844. These instructions remained 

 the established authority for several years, and in 1863 he was 

 invited to revise them, but he was regretfully obliged to decline on 

 account of ill health. 



After his severance from his post under Sabine in 1846, Riddell 

 must be remembered principally in his military capacity. He was 

 placed on the Staff at Woolwich, becoming Deputy Assistant Quarter- 

 master-General, and for his services in that post receiving the 

 following encomiums from General Palliser at the close of the Crimean 

 war : " To his untiring energy throughout the late war the successful 

 embarcation of the Artillery without casualty and the provision of 

 all the necessary supplies are to be mainly attributed " ; also on " the 



