3-034-734 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Sir Roderick Murchison, 1871. Engraving from a photograph by Messrs. Wilson and Beadell of a '...distinguished gentleman and natural philosopher...After the peace of 1815 Captain Murchison retired from the Army, married the daughter of General Francis Hugonin, a lady with a fortune, and devoted his mind to science. In these studies he was encouraged by the advice of Sir Humphry Davy. He attended the lectures at the Royal Institution, and received private instruction from Mr. Richard Phillips, the geologist, having resolved to pursue that branch of inquiry, which was then beginning to excite public notice...Murchison's treatise on "The Geology of Russia and the Ural Mountains," a volume of 700 pages quarto, copiously illustrated by maps, sections, and drawings, was published in 1845...so early as 1845, comparing specimens of Australian rocks with those of the Ural Mountains, [he] predicted that gold would be found there...Sir Roderick aided Lady Franklin and others in their efforts to prosecute the search after Sir John Franklin's ships or crews in the Arctic regions. He promoted the expeditions of Dr. Livingstone in Central Africa, and of Captain Speke, Colonel Grant, and Sir Samuel Baker to explore the sources of the Nile'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.