336 Obituary— Sir John Richardson. 
1845, three expeditions were sent out by the British Government, 
the command of one of which was given to Sir John Richardson. 
This, like his former expeditions, was overland. Accompanied by 
Mr. John Rae of the Hudson’s Bay Company, he, in July 1848, 
descended the Mackenzie River, and explored the coast between its 
mouth and that of the Coppermine River. In 1849, he proceeded 
to the Great Bear Lake, and afterwards to Great Slave Lake, whence 
his party returned by their former route to Canada. 
In 1851, he published his ‘Arctic Searching Expedition: a Jour- 
nal of Boat-Voyage through Rupert’s Land and the Arctic Sea, 
in search of the Discovery Ships under command of Sir John 
Franklin,’ &c.: 2 vols. 8vo. 
Besides this, especial mention must be made of his great zoolo- 
gical work, the ‘Fauna Boreali-Americana,’ 4 vols. 4to., 1829-37 
in the labour of which Swainson and Kirby shared. He also de- 
scribed the ‘ Fossil Mammals’ for the Zoology of H.M.S. ‘ Herald,’ 
Captain Kellett, R.N., C.B., Commander. 
His last important literary work was the article ‘Polar Regions,’ 
in Black’s Cyclopedia, since published sepasately in a large 8vo. 
volume. 
Most of his valuable collection of zoological specimens, first 
lodged in Haslar Hospital, Gosport, are now in the British Museum ; 
and upon the occasion of his last visit, he presented to the Geolo- 
gical Department a fine series of Fossil Leaves obtained from a bed 
of pipe-clay associated with coal-beds of Tertiary age on the Mac- 
kenzie River, between Fort Norman and the mouth of the Bear 
Lake River. This coal is constantly on fire, from spontaneous com- 
bustion, at some part of its exposed surface, and the pipe-clay has 
become porcellanous from the intense heat of the subjacent coal. 
Sir Alexander Mackenzie observed these beds on fire, emitting much 
smoke and flame, in 1785;* and they were still burning in 1849. Sir 
Joln Richardson gives two plates, in his ‘ Arctic Searching Expe- 
dition, | of these leaf-impressions on the surfaces of indurated 
pipe-clay from this interesting deposit. The specimens have been 
examined by Dr. O. Heer of Zurich, who was able to identify several 
species of trees now quite unknown in these extreme northern lati- 
tudes. Among them were—Corylus grossidentatus, Heer; Hedera 
Richardsoni, Heer; Acer otopieryx, Goppert; Taxites acicularis, a 
species of Salix, and seeds of Sequoia Langsdorfi. Mr. J. Walter 
Tayler has noticed a similar formation at Omenak Fiord, North 
Greenland, specimens from which may be seen, with those from the 
Mackenzie River, in the British Museum. 
Sir John Richardson died on the 5th June, at Lancrigg, Grasmere, 
in his 78th year. 
* See Sir Alexander Mackenzie’s description, in his Voyage of Discoyery down 
the ‘Mackenzie; also Appendix to Sir John Franklin’s Second Overland Expe- 
dition. 
y Vol. i. p. 186 et enfra; and iu. p. 403, 
