421 
Mr. E. Adams on the Birds of Michalaski. 
of natural history^ he devoted his leisure hours to its study ; 
and his talents in this respect had an important bearing upon 
his subsequent appointments, 
^Mn 1847 he obtained a commission in the Navy as Assis¬ 
tant-Surgeon^ and was at once appointed to Haslar Hos- 
pitalj and afterwards to the Naval Hospital at Devonport; 
but as soon as the expedition in search of Franklin was deter¬ 
mined upon in the winter of 1847-48, under Sir James Rossj 
Mr. Adams volunteered both as Assistant-Surgeon and Natu¬ 
ralist, and sailed for the Arctic seas in the investigator'’ (Cap¬ 
tain Maclure) on the 8th of May, 1848. This search proved 
a fruitless one; and in eighteen months^ time he returned in 
his ship to England, in November 1849. His time, however, 
had not been spent unprofitably, as his collections in orni¬ 
thology and geology, as well as his beautiful drawings 
of places of interest visited, fully testified, and for which 
he received the thanks of the Hydrographer of the Navy, 
Admiral Beaufort. Within barely three months of his land¬ 
ing in England we again find Adams, in January 1850, on 
his way to the Polar regions, and on this occasion as As¬ 
sistant-Surgeon and Naturalist on board the ‘'Enterprise,^ in 
the expedition under Collinson and Maclure, once more fitted 
out in search of Franklin, by way of Behring^’s Straits. The 
two ships forming the expedition parted company in the 
Straits ; and after the discovery of the North-west Passage by 
Maclure, the ^ Enterprise ^ put back, and wintering in China, 
again entered the ice in the following year. In October 1850 
Mr. Adams Avas sent with Lieut, Barnard to Michalaski 
Bedoubt, Norton Sound, and thence, in search of the missing 
expedition, overland to Darabin, the northernmost part of 
the Koupac river, with a party of the ship^s crew and natives, 
and only escaped, by taking a different route, being mur¬ 
dered, as poor Barnard and the Bussian commander at the 
fort were, by hostile Indians. Having rejoined his ship in 
June 1851, he accompanied it for the remainder of the voyage, 
spending four years in those dreary regions, and, in pursuit 
of his favourite study, formed a considerable collection of 
birds and drawings, most of which are stated to be deposited 
SEE. IV.-VOL. II. 2 g 
