Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/240

 they were reduced to great straits, and Richardson was compelled in self-defence to shoot the Iroquois voyageur Michel, who had murdered Robert Hood, a midshipman. On 7 Nov. they were rescued by the Indian Akaitcho, who brought them to Fort Providence. They reached Fort York in the following June, and arrived in England in October 1822, having traversed while in America over five thousand five hundred and fifty miles. In the ‘Narrative’ of the journey, which was published in 1823, and to which Richardson contributed notices of the fish collected, geognostical observations, and remarks on the aurora, Franklin writes: ‘To Dr. Richardson the exclusive merit is due of whatever collections and observations have been made in the department of natural history, and I am indebted to him in no small degree for his friendly advice and assistance in the preparation of the present narrative.’

Having taken up his residence at Edinburgh, where he had as a near neighbour and friend Francis Boott [q. v.] the botanist, Richardson next devoted himself to describing the mammals and birds in the appendix to Parry's ‘Journal’ of his second voyage (1821–3), which was published in 1824. In the same year Richardson was appointed surgeon to the Chatham division of the marines. He was, however, allowed to accompany Franklin on his second expedition to the mouth of the Mackenzie in 1825, taking with him Thomas Drummond [q. v.] as his assistant naturalist. After wintering at Fort Franklin on Great Bear Lake, having left Drummond at Cumberland House on the Saskatchewan, he and Franklin separated on 4 July 1826, Richardson being sent with eleven men to explore the nine hundred miles of coast from the Mackenzie eastwards to the Coppermine River in the two boats Dolphin and Union. This he accomplished by 8 Aug., and regained Fort Franklin on 1 Sept., having travelled nearly two thousand miles in ten weeks. He then made a canoe voyage round the Great Slave Lake for geological purposes; and then, Franklin not having returned, started in December for Carlton House, where Drummond 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 fêted 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 Franklin's ‘Narrative’ of his second expedition, Richardson was in London; but in 1828 he was back at his official duties at Chatham, where 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 described the quadrupeds and fishes, 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 treating 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 [q. v.] 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 Winnipeg, 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 55½° 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, and returned to England, reaching Liverpool on 6 Nov. 1849. Owing to his excellent arrangements for food and conveyance during Franklin's second expedition and this search expedition, not only was there no loss of life, but there was not even any privation