A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time by Rose

1846. The family, on the paternal side, came originally from the county

of Cumberland, England, where some of the old stock still remain on lands which have been in the family for several centuries. On the mother’s side (who was a Miss Youle), they came from Scotland, a portion of the Youle family having settled in Newark, Nottinghamshire, in 1680. Until the age of fourteen years, Henry was educated as a private pupil, jointly with his cousin, J. R. Hind, now the astronomer, by the Rev. W. Butler, head master of the Nottinghamshire Grammar School, then he was sent to Leipsic to the Handel Schule, where he remained two years. After two years further study in England, under the Rev. W. Butler, he went to Cambridge, where he resided several terms, but did not graduate, going to France for further proficiency in the French language. In 1846 he returned to England, and soon after sailed for America. In 1848 he was appointed mathematical master and lecturer in chemistry of the Provincial Normal School, Toronto, where he remained about five years, or until he accepted the chair of chemistry and geology, in the University of Trinity College, Toronto, and this chair he filled for thirteen years. In 1857, while still a professor in Trinity College, he was named by the Canadian government as geologist to the first Red River expedition. In 1858 he was placed in command of the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan exploring expedition. In 1860 the Imperial government published his reports on these expeditions; and in these blue books we find the first map of the now celebrated “fertile belt” of the North-West, as described and delineated by Professor Hind. In 1861, assisted by the Canadian government, he explored a portion of the interior of the Labrador peninsula, reaching, by Moisie river, the sources of the rivers which flow from the great Labrador plateau to Hudson Bay, the north-east Atlantic, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In his account of these explorations, published by Longmans, in 1863, Professor Hind first describes the then known extent and character of the Canadian fisheries. In 1864 he resigned his professorship in Trinity College to undertake a preliminary geological survey of New Brunswick, for the government of that province. Up to this date the literary work accomplished by the subject of this notice is as follows:—“The Canadian Journal;” a repertory of Industry, Science and Art. Edited 1852-1855. Three vols., quarto. Toronto: Maclear & Co. “Prize Report on the Improvement and Preservation of Toronto Harbor, 1854.” Published separately, also in “Canadian Journal” for 1855, with maps and plans. “Prize Essay on the Insects and Diseases injurious to the Wheat Crops,” pp. 139. Toronto: Lovell & Gibson, 1857. “Narrative of the Canadian Red River Exploring Expedition of 1857, and of the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition of 1858.” Two vols., with maps, wood cuts, and chromoxylographs. London: Longmans, 1860. “The Journal of the Board of Arts and Manufactures for Upper Canada.” Vols. I., II., III. Edited 1861-1863. Toronto: W. C. Chewitt & Co. “The British American Magazine.” Vols. I. and II. Edited 1863. Toronto: Rollo & Adam. “Explorations in the Interior of the Labrador Peninsula.” Two vols., with maps, wood cuts and chromo-lithographs. London: Longmans, 1863. “Eighty Years’ Progress of British North America.” Articles—“Physical Features of Canada;” “The North-West Territory,” &c., &c. Toronto, 1863. In 1866, his family growing up, Professor Hind purchased a property near Windsor, Nova Scotia, to facilitate the education of his sons, first at the Collegiate School, then at King’s College, the oldest Protestant chartered institution of learning in the provinces. In the years 1869, 1870, and 1871, under the instructions of the government of the Province of Nova Scotia, he conducted geological explorations to a considerable extent of the gold districts of that province. These are hereafter enumerated. In 1876 professional engagements led him to the mineral field of the north-eastern part of the Island of Newfoundland, and thence on the Atlantic coast of Labrador, nearly as far north as the town of Nain, or about 350 miles north of the Straits of Belle Isle. On this voyage of exploration Professor Hind discovered and mapped an extensive series of cod banks stretching for several hundred miles north-west of Belle Isle, and about twenty or thirty miles from the coast line. These are described in a paper addressed to the Hon. F. B. T. Carter, attorney-general of Newfoundland. This paper is also published in Part II., page 68, of the work on the Canadian fisheries, hereafter referred to. At the close of 1876 the Newfoundland government secured the services of Professor Hind for the year 1877 to examine and report on the newly-discovered cod banks, as far as Hudson’s Straits, but just as the Professor was starting from St. John’s, in May, 1877, on his northern exploration, a telegram from the government at Ottawa to the Newfoundland authorities was received which urged the necessity of his presence at the city of Halifax to assist in the scientific portion of the Canadian case in the fisheries contention then about to open. He was consequently compelled to relinquish his scientific investigations, and proceed forthwith to Ottawa. From Ottawa he went to Halifax, and remained there during the continuance of the arbitration. At its close, all the documents and records of proceedings on both sides were placed in his hands for analysis and indexing. The Analytical Index forms a quarto volume of sixty closely printed pages, and supplies the guide to the answers submitted during the examination of witnesses to a vast amount of matter connected with the six months fisheries inquiry at Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1878 Professor Hind prepared for the Paris Exhibition a series of charts illustrating the movements of fish in the North Atlantic waters during summer and winter, together with the spring and fall spawning grounds of the herring, the coastal movements of the cod, the seasonal movements of the halibut, the summer and winter migrations and movements of the harp seal, &c. For this novel series the jury of “Class XVI.” awarded the professor a gold medal and a diploma. The present whereabouts of these fish charts is not known. They disappeared after the Paris exhibition, not having been returned to the author. The following are his further publications since 1863:—“Reports on the Waverley Gold District,” with geological maps and sections, 1869. Halifax, N.S.: Charles Annand. “Report on the Sherbrooke Gold District, together with a paper on the Gneisses of Nova Scotia,” with maps, 1870. Halifax, N.S.: Charles Annand. “Report on the Mount Uniacke, Oldham and Renfrew Gold Mining Districts,” with plans and sections, 1872. Halifax, N.S.: Charles Annand. “Notes on the Northern Labrador Fishing Ground.” Blue book. St. John’s, Newfoundland, 1876. Also page 68, Part II., of “The effect of the Fishery clauses of the Treaty of Washington on the Fisheries and Fishermen of British North America.” Halifax, N.S.: Charles Annand. “On the Influence of Anchor Ice in relation to Fish Offal and the Newfoundland Fisheries.” Parts I. and II. Official papers. St. John’s, Newfoundland, 1877. “The effect of the Fishery Clauses of the Treaty of Washington on the Fisheries and Fishermen of British North America.” Parts I. and II., imperial oct. With maps, sections, and diagrams. Part I., pp. 169; Part II., pp. 74. Halifax: Charles Annand,