THE OSPREY, 16 



This he accomplished by 8 Aug. , and regained Fort Franklin on 1 Sept. hav- 

 ing travelled nearly two thousand miles in ten weeks. He then made a canoe 

 voyage round the Great Slave Lake for geologicul purposes; and then, Franklin 

 not having returned, started in December for Carlton House, where Drunnuond 

 rejoined him in April 1827, with large botanical and other collections. On 18 

 June he and Franklin met once more at Cumberland House, and, after being 

 much feted in New York, they reached England in September 1827. While 

 preparing his 'Narrative of the Proceedings of the Eastern Detachment of the 

 Expedition,' and the 'Observations on Solar Radiation, ' 'Meteorological Tables,' 

 and other contributions to Fi'anklin's 'Narrative' of his second expedition, 

 Richardson was in London; but in 1828 he was back at his official duties at 

 Chatham, whei'e the Melville Hospital, of which he became chief medical officer, 

 had just been built. All his spare time was devoted to the 'Fauna Boreali- 

 Americana', a government publication on a 'splendid' scale, in which he des- 

 cribed the quadrupeds and tishes, and assisted Swainson with the birds, while 

 the insects were described by William Kirby. 



In 1838 Richardson was appointed physician to the Royal Hospital at 

 Haslar. Here he was mainly instrumental in the establishment of the Haslar 

 Museum, and persuaded the admiralty to introduce the mild methods of treat- 

 ing lunatics. Among his pupils was Thomas Henry Huxley, who stated 'that 

 he owed what he had to show in the way of scientific work or repute to the 

 start in life given him by Richardson;' and he was also frequently visited by 

 Dr. (afterwards Sir Joseph) Hooker, who was then preparing to accompany 

 Sir James Ross to the Antarctic regions. In 1840 Richardson became inspector 

 of hospitals. 



It having been decided in 1847 to send a search expedition after that of 

 Sir John Franklin, Richardson was chosen to conduct it, and, with Dr. John 

 Rae as his second in command, he sailed from Liverpool, on 25 March 1848. 

 Travelling by way of New York, Albany, Montreal, and the lakes to Sault 

 Saint Marie, Fort William, and Norway House on Lake W^innipeg, they 

 reached Cumberland House, two thousand eight hundred and eighty miles 

 from New York, on 13 June, sixty-four days after starting, and the estuary 

 of the Mackenzie, four thousand five hundred miles from New York, on 4 

 Aug. On 3 Sept. they were compelled by ice-floes to abandon their boats in 

 Icy Cove, Union and Dolphin Straits, nine miles north of Cape Kendall. 

 They then marched to Fort Confidence, on the north side of Great Bear Lake, 

 and reached it after crossing the Richardson and Kendall Rivers on 15 Sept. 

 During the winter they made hourly observations of the temperature, which 

 for two days (17 and 18 Dec.) averaged 55^° F. 'below zero,' besides noting 

 the barometer, the wind, and the magnetic phenomena. In the following 

 spring Richardson left Rae, who was twenty years his junior, in command. 



