Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Hind, Henry Youle

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1527084Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement, Volume 2 — Hind, Henry Youle1912W. S. Jackson

HIND, HENRY YOULE (1823–1908), geologist and explorer, born at Nottingham on 1 June 1823, was third of five sons of Thomas Hind, by his wife Sarah Youle.

Educated till fourteen with his cousin John Russell Hind [q. v. Suppl. I], the astronomer, as a private pupil of the Rev. W. Butler, headmaster of the Nottingham grammar school, he spent two years (1837–9) at the Handels-Schule at Leipzig. In 1843 he studied at Queens' College, Cambridge, but left without graduating. He then travelled and studied in France, returning to England in 1846 and leaving for Canada the same year. In 1848 he was made lecturer in chemistry and mathematical master in the provincial normal school, Toronto. From 1853 till his resignation in 1864 he was professor of chemistry and geology in Trinity University, Toronto. Attached as geologist by the government of Canada to the first expedition to the Red River district (now the province of Manitoba) in 1857, he was in command of the explorations in the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan districts of the North West Territory in 1858, and was employed in the exploration of Labrador and its river system in 1861, when his brother, Wilham George Richardson Hind, accompanied the expedition as artist. He also conducted, in 1864, a geological survey of New Brunswick for the government of the province. In 1869-71 he examined officially the goldfields of Nova Scotia. During an exploration of the mineral fields in north-east Newfoundland and the Labrador coast in 1876, he discovered the extensive cod banks that extend north-west for several hundred miles off the shore above the straits of Belle Isle. The Newfoundland government desired him to investigate further and report on this important discovery the following year, but the Canadian government required his services in preparing scientific evidence on behalf of the Canadian plea in the controversy over the fisheries with the United States, which was discussed before the commission then sitting at Halifax, N.S. At the close of the proceedings in 1877 the records and evidence were entrusted to his care for arrangement and indexing at the suggestion of the commissioners for the United States.

Hind received the degrees of M.A. from Trinity University, Toronto, in 1853, and D.C.L. from King's College, Windsor, Nova Scotia, in 1890. In the latter year he was made president of the newly formed church school at Edgehill. In 1878 he was awarded a gold medal and diploma from the Paris exposition for charts showing the movements of seal and other fish on the coast of North America during the different seasons. Hind died on 9 Aug. 1908 at Windsor, Nova Scotia, and was buried in the Maplewood cemetery, He married, on 7 Feb. 1850, Katherine, second daughter of Lieutenant-colonel Duncan Cameron, C.B., of the 79th Highlanders, who was wounded at Quatre Bras. By her he had issue two surviving sons, Duncan Henry, rector of Sandwich, Ontario, and Kenneth Cameron, canon of All Saints' cathedral, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and two daughters. Hind was the editor of the 'Canadian Journal' (3 vols. 4to, 1852-55); of the 'Journal of the Board of Arts and Manufactures for Upper Canada' (1861-63); and of the 'British American Magazine' (1863). All were published at Toronto. He contributed to the journals of the Royal Geographical Society, of which he was elected a fellow in 1860, and other learned societies. His chief independent publications are: 1. 'The Narrative of the Canadian Red River Exploring Expedition of 1857 and of the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition of 1858,' Toronto, 1859, and London, 1860, 2 vols, with maps; containing the first detailed account and map of the now famous fertile belt. 2. 'Explorations in the Interior of the Labrador Peninsula, 1863,' 2 vols., with illustrations by Hind's brother, William George Richardson Hind. 3. 'Notes on the Northern Labrador Fishing Ground,' Newfoundland, 1876, which contains an account of the newly discovered cod banks. 4. 'The Effect of the Fishery Clauses of the Treaty of Washington on the Fisheries and Fishermen of British North America,' 1877, which attracted wide-spread attention.

[Art. in Frank Leslie's Illustrated, 26 Feb. 1881; Evening Mail, Halifax, N.S., 10 Aug. 1908, and Hants Journal, Windsor, N.S., 12 Aug. 1908; Morgan, Canadian Men and Women of the Time; information supplied by Miss Margaret Hind (daughter), Sunny Side, Nova Scotia.]

W. S. J.