Lachen 2 marches above
the village (same place as
before) June 11/[18]49

My dear H
Some coolies have just come in with your letters of 22, 27 and 8 which have greatly pleased and instructed me. The former should have been received long ago and I write one to you dissenting on the topics therein discussed (Rajah etc) should have been thereby modified had to come to hand in proper time. Here I am still with prospects bettered in one respect [worsed] in others. The villagers have all but 3 souls, gone up to the Pass to humbug me, and I am right glad come what may, of my efforts by this route that I did not take the other in the first place. The bridge was completed 2-day with great labour and I crossed to excellent camping ground at the huts opposite from which I found an excellent road back to Lachen on the other side of the Lachen river! bridged over the torrent from the [North?] which we hope may lead to the Pass but whether it does or no is yet uncertain we did not find the road on the other hand the Soubah brings word that this, the great branch is not the Lachen but the other to the East is, so I am all out to this being Campbell's route "round by the Lachen" to the Latang Pass. It rained all yesterday I lay by right glad of the rest for my heel is very sore and a hard bit with a [Bhan?] from [Paleshok?], when cutting through the jungle has notched the knuckle bone of my right hand little finger which prevents me holding on so well as I should. I am right well, very hungry and full of hopes of the future but every hour convinces me, that without Meepo I could do nothing and that my giving up Chin to him, when I did, was most wisely done. Both he Nimbo and all believe that the villagers will have the Chinese down to the border, and Meepo's activity is getting me along by this other route, convinces me that he is not conniving with them, had I not plenty of other proof of that. There are perfect stocks there Bhoteas and [?] neither for King or Kaiser as you say. M wanted to send a complaint to the Rajah which I of course interdicted [?] all [?] agree that the plateau is due N of me, but whether I can get there to any where West of Latang, remains to be seen, you and Campbell may depend upon my every exertion being used and that I have Meepo's [?] help/ To him I have enjoined disregard to the Bhoteas should we be forced to retire on the beaten track I have good reason to know he hates them and that they have treated him ill; and that he is a tenuous Lepcha after all. He is profoundly ignorant of this country of course and I shall have difficulty in persuading him that the Latang Maidan is not that of Chin:- he is so heavily threatened too by the Rajah that I cannot wonder he is anxious. His orders are most peremptory to take me to the Mt. Pass of Lachong and to the bridge which is on the Latang plain, and which, crossing small muddy, there separates Chin from Sikkim. That a bridge is the Pass, all affirms and hence their attempt to pass the bridge over the Lachen (this branch I mean) upon me as the boundary - it once was so - I have now lots of food, very very many thanks for your generous contributions, the gingerbread was a capital hit on its own account and as diverting my attention from the "little Campbell's cake, which I was eating like a Schoolboy yesterday from morning till night you would laugh to see me - who hardly touch sweets at your table, eating them so greedily in the jungle when they are so perfectly delicious. I [vow] that I am out of salt meat and cannot get fowls and eggs, the preserved meats are invaluable and a little goes a long way. Indeed I cannot be grateful enough to you and Campbell to for your liberality. I ought not to so trespass on your kindness, for there are stores at Dorjeeling and I have money issues and this I tried to impress upon Bhaggun, with very limited success - [none] perhaps if he were to tell the truth. My collection still goes on increasing very fast - I found 12 new [kind?] today - all this are of course alpines, and quite to be expected from this elevation, but are new to me and will increase my Sikkim Flora enormously. I am much puzzled what to say about your Shikari and fearful of your supposing that I send them back to Choongtam because they are troublesome - The fact fact is that I do not think [?] a good man at all, and when we get to a wet and cold place I assure you I do not see his face day by day except to complain of want of food or shelter. My reasons for sending them back [are] expressly that I stated, that there was no food for them they did not bring the [?] I gave them and gave their coolies [few?] from Choongtam and there was absolutely nothing to shoot for food or stuffing. But my doubts now are about Lachong when I go there. The red jacket [Danjah?] is very active, never complains, and always busy: always comes with his salaam to shew me his days sport and was much afraid you should think his getting nothing at Lachan idleness - he considered Choongtam an excellent place, as it ought to be, ranging in one hour from the Tropics to the Pine forests [?] of course thought it a happy change to be sent back, because it is war, there - I know you will say "use your own judgement", and my only fear is, lest they should [?] a chance of picking up any thing near the Passes I have lots of food, lots of coolies and housing - they have always had a coolie more than they said that they wanted, and except for food have never been stinted. For my own part I am extremely anxious that some zoological result should turn up from my expedition, for I cannot find time to go out shooting myself., Nimbo carries my gun and has since leaving Lachen but except a Pheasant when he was out with me I have seen no one thing. Kindly let me know whether what they sent from Choongtam is good, they say yes, but so they did of rubbish in Nepal - if not they had better try the snow again and accompany me to Lachong. I am seriously concerned about the extent of repairs your house requires, it will be a ruinous cost, for whatever be the probability of a sale that money is irretrievably sunk an lost, when called for after so few years occupation by yourself - it should not have been so, depend upon it - when counsel had you as to the soundness of the tenement? [?] I assure you with regard to my promise [?] Cheen, I put the Durbar avowedly wholly out of the question. I could not but, consider the [?] of the Rajah's order on the case, which I should have thought would have carried more weight than Campbell, for that alone I never would have given an inch. The question became one of 4 [?] and simply, shall I, with the object of going into Thibet, even reach the passes. Refusing to answer was avowing my intention and that with such an intention Meepo must be my enemy was sure. Without a guide I never could have got on even here, and here I am for 5 days past on the wrong scent, not only as to the branch of the river I should have taken, but as to the road up this even is shut. I have as ill [?] would have it taken the worst of four paths. I doubt not the villagers are laughing in their sleeves - mean time I am keeping them cooling their heels up at the pass, to the number of 120 people! It was the difficulties of the country to which I succumbed and these you see I did not overate. I am deeply obliged by the kind tone with which you sympathise with my disappointment I am perfectly positive that had the people not my assurance that Thibet was not my object, the Lachen road would have been cut off in 20 places. I may be wrong for there is no end to Bhotea deceit, but I do not think Meepo had deceived me - he has never in word or in deed put the smallest obstacle in my way, except in rescinding the Durbar orders not one of which I gave any formal answer to, the last ordering me back, required me either to obey or not to obey and I of course point blank refused to obey it. Except [?] sent it to Campbell and he ordered me so to do. I said over and over again, I receive no orders except from Campbell. Meepo is a devoted Serot of the Rajah and I am inclined to think knows and cares little about the Dewan. C. I think attaches too much importance to the Dewan, who I never hear even spoken of with the most ordinary respect in Sikkim while the Raja is always spoken of with hearty good will. I cannot conceive anyone like Meepo not betraying it had he been schooled by the Dewan - Again, what the Quaber said of these roads is perfectly true. I have seen nothing like them anywhere. As to the Lachen Bhotias they are half mad, you never saw such senseless stocks they are not properly as Nivean Bhotias, but the genuine Plateau breed, and firmly believe I am a conjuror and can do them incalculable mischief. They sent for the Lama on account of my shooting I am told, to avert the evil you never saw such an alarm as the gun created. I doubt if you could bribe some of them to touch it. They squat down at a great distance from my Tent to look in and if you say Boh boo, run like mad people. I have read Strachey's Snow line report which Campbell sent me it is not perfectly clear - certainly our Snow line is much lower than his - and I shall make very accurate observations here where I am now, being N. of the greater ranges of this meridian - This valley runs E and W and the snow is certainly over 100 or 1000ft lower on the S flank than on the North. I have seen no glaciers but abundance of snow 30ft deep at 10,000ft and below that, at 11,000 beds 60ft I think but the genuine freely exposed P.S. I take to be at 13,500ft on the S. flank of the valley and 14,500 on the North if any thing I am making it too high on both flanks but remember last Winters fall was very severe and this is not the height of the melting season.

Ever with again. Every grateful acknowledgement for your kindness
Yrs affectionate[ly]
Jos. D. Hooker

June 12 1849

My dear H

After writing to you today we took camp across the river and whilst the men were pitching and repairing the shingle [shed] I took a ramble through the forest and in 2 hours found a narrow track up the stream N. Returning I took some men and we opened it up for 1000ft through Webbiana pine and a [horrid?] scrub of a small Holly it took 4 hours getting so high about 1/2 a mile linear in distance. The river is a tremendous torrent, swollen fearfully, it is a cataract for this whole 1000 feet i.e. no where pooling for a yard, but in one sheet of [?]. At 12,500ft it was tranquil in a deep ravine and to my astonishment I find its temp 4o higher than at 1000ft lower down. It hence arises from a flattish country or flows through such from, a very distant snowy source, we returned by dark very tired.
June 13th
Ascended the river again to explore further reaching in 2 hours our yesterday's finites continued up, through a deep [defile?] verified my yesterdays temperatures. At 12,700ft are vast beds of snow and most uncomfortable slips of stones. The snow bridges the river for many yards[s] and is 30-40 ft thick but there is little on the surrounding [?] mts. and there are at the foot of lateral [?] still the [communication] is prodigious. At 13,000ft the valley suddenly expands, with low hills on either hand, is piled full of huge rocks and so impenetrable a scrub of Rhododendrons that we did not get 1/4 mile in 4 hours had to knock off at 4pm utterly done up scratched and bruised. The day was very bad thick mist and heavy rain, cold and comfortless and our devious route through the [shrubs?] clambering precipices and worming through clefts of rock or up the river flanks ducked in the showering cascades most disagreeable. Could we cross to the opposite side for the last 1/4 mile is very practicable to appearance. At this broad part there is hardly a patch of snow as far as I could see - even up to 14,000 ft on either flank of the valley and the river still kept the high temperature of 49o at 13,000ft! whilst at 12,000ft it was 47o and at 11,000 45o the main stream into which it falls 40o I need not say we had no path of any kind we were 4 hours returning as fast as we could drive reaching camp in pitch black, but they even had come out with lights in the wood. Since 10am we sat down but once, at 4pm for half an hour. I must now take a part of the camp up the valley and continue the exploration but how to get the coolies along is the difficulty and they are of course heartily sick of this work. I conclude the river has a remote source or near one, in low hills though my position the views I have had and temperatures all but convince me I am beyond the main range of the Himal. and very close to the Plateau. I am the more anxious about the route, as I think I am surely informed that the Lachen Pass is a bridge and that a China post has been recently established there. One thing is certain that the Rajah's [munject?] is left at the bridge and then received by the Thibetans. This does not prove the beyond being Chin for the Wallong [salt?] is taken by the Thibetans to Wallanchoon

14th
I had a fine view this morning - West of Kinchin and Waugh's [D.Z.?] I take it both South of my position which is as presume as this

[MAP]

June 14th
This morning was fine but day too drizzly to take the things up the Pass road

June 17th
Since writing the above I have been laid up two days and the weather has been too bad to allow me trying the Pass The Bhotheas came to make their Salaam but I refused to see them and sent the, back to Lachen at once. They said this was Chin others told my coolies (coming up with Rupett) that there was no Pass here but only stony hills others that the Bhoteas had gone round from the Pass to oppose my progress this way and that the Thibethans were down at the frontier along with the Lachen villagers who are still all up at Latang. Meepo is in a great state about this being Chin and is evidently heavily threatened upon that point. I have been very busy drawing and my collection is now getting very large. I have just finished 30 Fungi all different from Darjeeling species. So I Strachey has settled the snow line question as far as the N.W. is concerned, and I am very anxious to see how it will turn out here, but the continuous snow ridge is evidently wanting in this meridian and it is impossible to say at this season what is perpetual and what sporadic there are such enormous beds at 10,000ft and even below it and snow has fallen at 13,00 within these few days. I calculate the breadth of the P.S. ranges have between the Sub-Himal and Thibet to be 24 miles or rather less. As far as I can make out there is no plateau proper N of this but bare undulating rocky hills and all the evidence I can collect is against there being any Pass proper, i.e. over a snowed ridge North of Lachen but you know I give you my information just as it comes and you must weigh it irrespective of my opinions which must lean to what these lying wretches say in the absence of better data. You cannot I assure you form an idea of the difficulty of getting on in this weather without route, guide or dependable information nor of the multitude of paths you may take these being all even the best [?] more than tracks to Yak grazing or to Shikari - a bush once cut indicates a path, where it leads and how long or far you may track it you must find out yourself and you have no sure guide in direction, no bearing, no distances to help you. I have written to Falconer declaring my sentiments fully as to his conduct and that except he can explain or apologise for it herewith my communications must be discontinued with himself and the [H.E/S?] gardens directly or indirectly, My Father is complaining of my sending nothing to Kew and you know what hundreds of roots I have transmitted to Calcutta with what trouble for diversion with Kew, very few of which were, previous to Macree's taking charge even acknowledged. [?] F. says with some bitterness "we have literally nothing to shew of yours in the Royal Gardens" I have said nothing to him about F. Bowling wrote to me about cultivating [?] at Darjeeling and the scheme appears good and he is a zealous and skillful horticulturist so I have backed the recommendation

June 17
I am all right again and the weather looks clearing

Ever your affectionate
Jos. D. Hooker

June 24 [1849]

My dear H

Your kind letter and enclosures reached me yesterday and I have been so very busy writing home so that I can scarce find time to answer you properly, certainly not to thank you enough for the bountiful stock you are sending and your continued attentions to my wants and wishes. I am quite sorry you have lost Tayler who was truly a kind-hearted fellow whom I could only judge of by [surface?] but who I shall value for your sake now more than if I had known him better myself. I return Darwin's letter full of acute observations and good feeling it is, just like himself - I wish that you knew him. He writes 2 letters to me, but I have scarce had time to read them and will send them by my next with other news home and foreign - he has been very ill all winter, like to die. What on earth can Strachey and Co have got to attack you about? I will most heartily take up the cudgels about the Himal. a right good geographical distribution of them should be your best communication to them. As [?] in India and I will give you all the Botany and Meteorology I can pick up. If this be done well as you well can do it the [triangulating?] snobs have only to fill in the details and take their proper places analagous to the [drawing of a triangle], of a brass band which jingleth full save when struck per se but which the [?] musician appreciates the value of in the whole piece. I shall be very glad to see [some?] of [Yates?] book especially Strachey's paper I do think the best way for you to treat these people is to [?] them not formally but by one of your good papers, and in there to write from your own position which requires you to take no personal notice of the attacks. Your standing reputation dignity and relative ages all demand this and it is the [tune?] I will always adopt towards the small fry who may even tempt me to answer, by breaking their heads and sins of small and partial experiences against years and miles of travel and many more of study - an attack or [answer?] is what the fellows seek - then they have the credit of having returned their hits with the nerves of the day and they know full well that their public never cares who wins or can judge who is right. I have good news from England and will send you my F's letter anon - my sister continues well i.e. well for a young invalid and Kew flourishes beyond all powers of description. My poor old friend Sir H. Inglis has had a great Carbuncle extracted from his Abdomen. The madcap [Gifford Palgrave] my [hopeful?] cousin, who at [21?] outstarred the Oxford stars and then turned Papist and entered the [E.I.C?] as cadet has just thrown up the latter, sold all his property and taken orders as a Jesuit priest at the [Matta/Malta?] college. My Aunt is much cut up about it - I vote he goes to Llasa. Forshall the Librarian at the B.M. has gone mad at last after his (deserved I suppose) persecutions. Campbell has a great packed of writing paper from [?] of mine which came by [Banghy?] Please send me some and take out the [?] you kindly gave me. I ordered it to be of the same kind. Any English [Banghy] parcels had better go to Muller as they contains Instruments. Thanks again for all your care about my plants. I do hope [Runghin?] is not letting my things go to wrak and ruin. I must take your advice [?] [?] myself, but that detains me months and or weeks.
Please ask Bhaggun to get me a Lamp Shade of the size of ring I sent I have broken my only one and the [?] put out the light. Also I want a bit of Gamboge having lost my great lump somehow.

Ever your truly affectionate
J.D. Hooker

[LIST ON BACK OF LETTER]
Writing Paper
Gamboge
Lamp Shade to fit Candle-Stick of the size of the ring sent
at Martin's I hope who supplied this Paper for drying plants Nepal or brown
I return to you a whole batch of Letters

Camp Allem
Samdong

July 5 1849

My dear H

I came down here yesterday, there being nothing to be done up above, no amount of the impracticable nature of the valley at this season I waited 9 days for a decent hour or time to explore, that arrived on the 1st July, when I ascended to 14,5000 ft and had a very good view of the Thibet boundary hills, with the valley I was turning to the N.W. and the route to the Pass indicated (I presume) by a lot of sheds some 2000ft up on the opposite side of the valley. The river I had most carefully explored 15 days before at about that place and found in wholly impracticable except at a snow bridge, now and [?] and the valley above is so choked with Rhododendrons that I have no notion of trying that any further, and at any rate coolies could not go up. The said hills appeared low and undulating averaging 13,000 ft in elevation, grassy and with sloping not [rocky] sides varied with broad flats - I saw little snow, and all appeared of the 2 nights previous fall. The map was so confused and undulating that we could not guess where the Pass or route beyond the huts lay. The range is of a totally different character from any I have elsewhere seen in the Himal. and as they were seen from 14,500ft against a blue sky, it is clear that there is no elevation beyond equal to that. Still there may be great gulfs of snow and a broad mountain belt yet before reaching the table-land which cannot be under two days journey from my position. We have been very badly off for food and I dare say you heard long before I did (yesterday evening) that the bridges are swept away and any communication with Choongtam rendered both long and very arduous for coolies. My men have been terribly frightened by the Bhotheas all except Nimbo, the Bhothean coolie Sirdar who is really quite invaluable. I am now very glad for my own sake, I have up all thoughts of Thibet. I assure you I have no more idea of finding my way without a guide, than you could of sailing a ship: of course I could do it with unlimited time and food, but not with that I could command under any circumstances, and the organized opposition of the Rajah and a whole village, close to the frontier, was what we never calculated upon. I have now kept the Bhotheas a month up at Latang whither they have taken their homes and chattels and got the [?] there too. I cannot describe to you the [richness?] and beauty of the Flora here and had one only tolerable weather and food this would be charming, but with the mind always anxious it takes all one's love of nature to keep the Devil away, still I am very busy and happy and long for the day when I am to spin my yarns to you for I have heaps to say and cannot write distinctly and [orderly?] my rules and reasons for actions. My men behave most extremely well, they have been for 12 days very hard up, besides wet and cold and terrified out of their senses, poor souls they are quite thin and haggard. They all believe I was 20 days in Chin [Cheen?] and liable to have my throat cut any of the 19 nights. I never could have got on with Meepo except by establishing confidence. I firmly believe he is ignorant of the Rajah’s being at the bottom of all this. I have no news to communicate my last dates from Dorjiling being [14th June?] The things you kindly sent had not arrived at Choongtam on the 30th June which I did not expect as the weather has been atrocious. My Father is very anxious about my going to Borneo, as no doubt is my mother, but he assures me that neither she nor my sister ever allude to the subject and he writes on his own part only. I am quite puzzled what to say or do. I have written that I cannot give it up except on a Govt. recall and I am insured £400 a year at home, independent of what he allows me. What on earth my dear Hodgson is the use of my going home to eke out a miserable existence on the £200 I had of which [£80?] was all I could ever call my own. Then I was living in my F’s home, which could not be the case on my return. As to my publications my ambition is to publish at the very lowest possible cost and in doing which to forego all author’s profits. Even if I had a chance of getting any! My prospects in England except the Govt. will take me up more liberally than heretofore, are absolutely [nihil? nil?] beyond a wife and family! I send you a little chart of my whereabouts as you kindly praised my former ones pray ask me about any point. Many thanks for the Athenaeum wh. I have devoured, advertisements and all. Please send me the books whose names I append, the two first if you can spare them, the third is amongst my books. I am anxious about my plants that [Runghim?] has charge of now that Clamanze has not returned, as he ought nor written to me. Will you kindly ask your painter or any careful man to see that the bundles of dried plants are kept off the ground and off the walls and are not mouldy inside x I did not expect to have to give you this trouble as Clamanze should have been back a month ago but I gave him half pay so he has taken it coolly I suppose. Drying my fair collections in this jungle and weather is indeed a labor, but I get on after a fashion

Ever yours affectionately
Jos. D. Hooker

x Cathcart would kindly look at them I am sure Note between two pages

WRITTEN AT BOTTOM OF LETTER

Humboldt - Pers. Narr.
Darwin’s Geology of S. Amer.
Jackson’s ‘ What to Observe’ from my books
Nepal Paper
Brown Windsor Soup - two or three packets

July 5th 1849

My dear Brian

My letter of this morning had but just left when two of your coolies arrived bringing a part of the stock Sugar and pepper, the Umbrella, Tea and biscuits, all (but the pepper) indispensable and [most?] seasonable, of Sugar I eat a great deal. Your letter is however the real and great gratification, as it sets my mind at rest as to my past and present proceedings. Your counsel is most wise and I have acted up to it. [?] reduced my months to the minimum and worked hard. My late starvation has been the worst of any, but never gave me uneasiness as the former ones did, for the bridges going was to be calculated upon, and I was successfully outwitting the Bhotheas. My men though so frightened never complained. I knew they dared not to stop my supplies and I never was unhappy true I at one time quite expected to reach Cheen by that route and this buoyed me up through the dismal 11 days of wet and cold [bullying?] and fasting. Could I have [gone?] on 10 days before I should have done it, for Nimbo and I had agreed to bridge the river by a bed of snow which is now swept away and though I do not see my way beyond the shed I told you of that might have turned up, for Nimbo is very clever and poor Meepo active. To-day a Soubah (who I know) arrived from the Rajah with orders to smooth all difficulties, he brought me rather a handsome present from the Durbar for which I beg C. to make a suitable return - I took care to make no complaints whatever to him of the Lachen people as I know they did all on authority and told the Soubah that really they were nothing to me - one [hill?] being as good as another for my purposes, if high enough and accessable. The Lachoong route is good and well bridged throughout the rains - all this is very true and as far as I can gather the route to the Thibet plateau from Latang is tortuous amongst low hills for a long way so that I expect to see nothing in that quarter. As soon as I can get a fair collection of the superb plants of this place I shall go up to Latang and then return to Choongtam. Your Shikari are at Choongtam there is no difficulty in sending food there from Dorjiling and they shall accompany me to Lachoong and try the snow. I think this is best. I am earnestly desirous that since Zoological fruits should accrue from all this expedition fraught with so many troubles to my friends but by George a more dead country that this is inconceivable daily Meepo took out the gun for Shikari but two [Kestunah?] is all we have seen this 2 months and one covey of Pheasant, one [Kestunah?] we shot, a very young one, with small short and not another beast or bird even tempted a shot! How I do wish you could see this [podur ta 'Radaquddor?] it is the loveliest thing I ever set eyes on. I expect it is the Rosa Lyellei just look in Paxton if that be introduced into England named after old Mr Lyell. I sent roots this morning to Campbell, who I asked to send some to you and to Mrs. Bowling. The rest [if any?] will plant that I may send to Kew in the cold weather. Walliches Lilium Giganteum is in flower at my tents door, 6ft high and deliciously sweet. I send a copy of a letter from Humboldt to my Father, who had answered the Baron long ago though his letter never seems to have reached the Baron. They had not a shadow of authority for beginning the work and it serves them right to be a little [sensorious?] Berghaus is I suppose like other German Professors as poor as a church mouse and the proffered extension of the original requirement in size, text and number of plates he no doubt thought an irresistible bait. £150 is to a german an enormous sum and the Baron's recommendations (who is omnipotent at the Palace as well as in the studio) no doubt clinched the thing in Berghaus's opinion. The Baron too is evidently excessively proud of the [commission?] it is true we gave the B the full choice of a person, without any reservation and said the money was only to be asked for, on application with reference to you. However all is well that ends well, but I had no idea that the charts would be prepared in such a hurry I told my F you know 3 months ago to give the half instalment when called for (£75) so that ere this all that difficulty is settles and after all, the thing once begun the sooner it is out of hand the better. What an extraordinary deal of g's at his age and after such a life! My Father was sent the Rhododendron books and is in a great way at my having sent no live plants, (and a few baskets of rubbish only to Kew) this is really too bad of Falconer my last letter to whom must produce some explanation. My old Servt. V. Clamanze writes that he is very ill and cannot come back Falconer has procured me another man of the name of [J.D. de Cruz?] who was to have left Calcutta on 20th June, he was lately Steward of the Bengal Military Club

Ever your affectionate etc.
J.D. Hooker
Neither you nor Campbell say anything about your health

[WRITTEN ALONG L.H. EDGE OF PAGE]
Poor (Muller) writes word that he has had news of his family in England and affairs at Calcutta

[WRITTEN ALONG R.H. SIDE OF PAGE]
The Nepal Chatty has come all broken [?] and it is not enough to cover my hat!

July [8] Allem Samdong

My dear Brian

I have just received your two of July 23rd with kind communications and offers of more supplies. I shall have an abundant stock at Choongtam to last me a month on my return there, for I cannot get coolies along this road for the men's food and that is of course my first object. Again lasting thanks for your goodness. The advice about the route back is excellent but really I doubt if I should not protract this [?] life throughout the rains there are whole Nat. families of which hundreds of species are enumerated as Himalayan yet hardly above ground! partly due to their over late flowering and partly to the late [inclement?] brumal solstice. My great difficulty is drying plants abut for that there is no help, no one can do it - but myself, and no once can collect these alpines but one long accustomed to a glacial flora. Drawing on the spot too is essential - of many even the best dried little can be made at home and my collection of drawings is now so superb that I [long[ to render it unequalled (for my opportunities) These passes take long to explore too you know I waited 11 days for the sun on the [gyema?] river the other day, and then you didn't know which way to turn for a Mt that will prove acceptable for 1000ft, and yield a view after all. Thank God Campbell has kindly got and sent me routes and so that I can [move?] with confidence and freedom. I doubt not you are right about the Plateau. I thought of the possibility of such as plateau but have been or wholly out five hundred times in surmises that I do not now dwell in my own hypotheses. I am quite convinced that, the traveller until he has stood on and seen knows less that the student at home, Distances objects occupancy and exceptional features even of a trifling extent shroud all the great ones. An accumulation of details is often all he gets for his pains it cannot which requires a very steady head and well trained mind. Hence the traveller may visit every river in the Himal and at the end fail to class them as you have done. The induction philosopher will always be the better, perhaps wrong in details, but the safest guide if he will not gloss over exceptional features. Should I come back in August I will take care as to what you say, and can easily march from Khidong to Yangany in the day. Pray do not think of sending the [pony] he will slip and cut all his knees to pieces - it is a very steep road as C. knows, quite impassable ["sevan servece"] in most places and the perpetual mounting and dis(mounting) I cannot abide. It is no great distance at all I assure you. I will keep your advice in my eye about Lachoong route and depend upon it. D.V. will not leave the pass till I have done my very best, but do not be too hopeful, my best is but little in this season of mist and the reiterated disgusting disappointment that follows each [T?] ascent to be [balked] of a view. The Quaber says you see the plain of Cheen below you, from Lachoong There are two passes at Lachoong I hear a new and far one and I should try to see both Doubiah Lah is of course Waugh's Powhunry. All tell me that the Lachen not the Lachoong route leads [?] on to [?] Plateau winding among low hills, but quite low and undulating and that from Lachoong you descend considerably but these [beasts?] call any thing 'maidan' that is short of an absolute precipice! I am so absorbed in Botany that I have even less than usual interest to give you. I have just written to Campbell all I can guess about the rain [question?] topical influences, are as you say every thing and with the glaring fact that a guage 40 ft above the ground will not catch by 1/3 so much as are on the ground, it is evident that in a mountainous country, that alone inextricably [complicates] the phenomenon. I have thought and thought over what I said to F and "humph" is the only answer I can afford myself. My [garden?] bill and 2 letters from him came with my last despatches amongst the items I find the matter of 2-300 Rupees for tin packing boxes, glazed cases and many of them the months of April, May and so that I hope he has sent a lot of things home lately. My father is much vexed and sends me a list of all Kew has received, some 5 packets of the very commonist orchidae of the Himal not worth 6d and not a single thing else Magnolia nor Arum nor Rhododendron, not Raspberry, nor any of the hundreds of fine things from your [?] [?] and Taylor which I sent last year to Calcutta Gardens for division and which to this hour are not acknowledged. Talk about ["Waleah?] by George [?] could not outhector this. Clothes, bedding, books, instruments all over and over again asked for since my first arrival at Dijauli to this day an outcome. When the things went over from Peel's to the Garden F shortly informed me there were no shirts! amongst them if so I must have been precisely plundered and left the best part of a 6 years Indian outfit from Thresher and Glenny but F has never answered my enquiries for particulars yours of 20th has not come to hand yet. I exceedingly regret to hear of Campbell's disappointment about [Nibal?] can you lend me a good water-tight round tin? If so I will send you my Rhododendron drawings. If "del Crasca" de Cruz my new half caste has arrived he was to bring a dozen tins for packing drawings for him far more than I shall want so pray use them as your pleasure. I do not offer you Pines [etc?] of which I send a lot of roots to Campbell yours are all dying I see and really they require much more care and skill whilst young than your garden gives them. I do not like to send them to Bowling not wishing to cultivate an aquaintance there Campbell will I think do the needful for them i.e. keep them alive until I return. I ask him to send you a couple of Ab. Brummania and Lilium Giganteum the former must be actually be planted in a damp cool place in rich soil and carefully looked after.

Ever your affectionate
Jos. D. Hooker

July 12th 1849

My dear B

The long looked for coolies and letters of the 20th have arrived at last with the paper I have been so anxiously wanting and a glorious piece of beef, cigars and biscuits. The other things are left at Choongtam for it is impossible to get them in this weather and I have enough now and to spare. It is 50 days since I have fared so well what can I give you of geography? really I have been so far out in my calculations that I am almost ashamed to go on with my guesses even to you. My giddy brain now is speculating on the possibility of Powhunry and Kinchin being two mountain masses that are not connected by any considerable ridge but whose long spurs inosculate and are separated and trenchantly by streams from the plain of Thibet i.e. from a plateau skirting Sikkim in the North, and from which (a tergo sputante) Kinchin and Powhunry rise. My present puzzle is the great white mountain I have so often [?] about and which I was always looking at from your Verandah and I dare say you remember boring you with speculations about it. I pointed it out to Campbell on my first arrival at Dorkiling and he will be able to do so to you by the accompanying exaggerated sketch from your Verandah. The dagger c points up to the curious tooth like rock of [Mainisuchoo?] and a little to the left of that you will see the Mt. in question b very distant and pure white, These (liars) say it rises from the plain of Thibet - My angles place it on a right line between Kinchin and Powhunry. I see it from Lachen quite close (comparatively) as a huge mass of snow - its relative position I take to be as this

[HERE A DRAWING OF A MAP IS INSERTED]
The little a as the sketch of the map indicates "Tukchan" (probably a fabulous name) a lofty Mt. at whose n base and up the stream n of which I spent all June - it is a continuation of what is here the main chain for so far East of Kinchin there being no mountain between D3 and the enigmatical b of nearly equal altitude indeed all between these limits are low undulating mountains. The river you see is forked at the TRIANGLE SHOWN my present camp and the road to Latang is up the right branch. The frontier is I expect a shoulder of b which they call Kangcham (evidently a bad lie made in a hurry and taken from Kangecham) it is "Kangra" no doubt is not in [N?] Thibet similarly placed, similarly named? Be that as it may D3 the low Mts. [west?] of it and b are no doubt the bona fide Himal chain which [Phito] having strained his back at Kinchin and Powhunry and b could not finish properly along the interstitial spaces. Now what do you say to extending a lofty plateau or [?] all the way from Kinchin to Chumulari how it dips to Tsampu is another question - all I can say is the country north of a or Tukchan that is between D3 and my b is no more like the Himal. that [Hampstead?] hill - nor is the view from Lachen up the right branch, East of b the least like Wallong Yangma Kambachan etc and there again are low rounded hills, grassy and swelling I have always forgot to tell you that Wight in the Nilgiris has put the vocabulary at once into what he thinks sure hands to give satisfaction I forget where and his long puny letters hardly bear twice reading but try if you have a mind. I see no difficulty in taking the Shikari to Lachang, food was the obstacle this way and has been and is so to this day but all assure me the Lachang road is perfectly passable and well bridged. I still hold to my opinion of 14,500 being the average level - not that there is much there throughout the year, the steepness being excessive and drainage great but when we find it perpetual at below 10,000! in well exposed [partites?] we may well feel puzzled at what to call the snow level - The great transverse valley I have been so long in, running for 20 miles north of east from Kinchin is certainly the most remarkable Sikkim feature - wooded as it is on the north faces exposure and bare the opposite way! On zoology I have nothing to say but that I have caught some very nice moths by candle light, very like Scotch ones many of them are. Some of my most interesting plants are European and N. American genera still I do not find any genus in the vast abundance of species that the [?] present and I am fully convinces that when best explored the Himal. will fall very far behind that chain of several genera these ennumerate 300 species. We have absolutely no large genus to replace the calceolaria, cacti, fuchsia, tropaeolum and very many others of upward of 100 species inhabiting the cordillera worst of all the three great mundane ubiquitous [Nat. Ords.] are miserably deficit in the Himal. these collectively are absent by thousands literally - comparing the Himal. with the Alps, Andes, Cape or New Holland or indeed any other temperate country whatever! nor are they replaced by an excess of any one Nat. family. The Cordillera in general terms have a fair share of all the mundane Nat. Orders and genera and many vast ones peculiar to themselves. The Himal. has not even a peculiar genus of any of dimensions and importance no Nat. Order and is generally deficient in many of the most ubiquitously distributed. I wrote to Colvile long ago about the box which I think had better go to [Thuillies?] at least I asked Colville to send it there the latter has no doubt received my letter by this time - it went about 10th June from [this] I had it directed to C's care on purpose to save it the extra trip to the gardens whither the P & O sent it to. My Sirdar has put the Nepal chatta into order and I find it far supercedes the English umbrella and is most useful, it arrived in a deplorable state "disjecta membra" the drawing paper inside the other arrived so safe and well that I will send my Rhododendrons to you similarly packed so pray do not trouble about the "tin for drawings" I should be very glad that [Bhaggun] sent to [Dankootah?] for two more loads of paper - Have you money? Or shall I send you another cheque I send one in case

Ever yours affectionate

Jos. D. Hooker

Postscript
The cigars are excellent I was just reduced to [Christos?] My people craved so for tobacco to allay their hunger that I gave all my stock away. Will you kindly order V.P. a box for me?
Now that Gurney Turner is ['beaties'?] I have to one to apply to;, After Chris---- they are really a treat

"Samdong" (Campbells Latang)

July 15th 1849

My dear B

I filled 4 pages of foolscap and despatched them to you on the 13th, but the intelligence has just reached me of the coolies having lost his footing and my letters, crossing a stream. I therein told you that I found this place to be quite what I expected, a country of low hills, through which the Lachen river runs 11,500ft above the sea, with flattish terraces along its banks, of no extent. The general nature of the hills is exactly what I saw up the Zemu river, they rise to about 14,000 ft and are grassy and sloping. No snow whatever is to be seen hereabouts and I am assured that neither E.W. or N. (near hand) are there any mountains of Perp. Snow. It is a long half days journey from this to the frontier which is in a low range of hills by this river and thence the route into Thibet, North is for a long day's march, like this sparingly wooded, on the third day you have only grass and the 4th march is amongst [stoney?] ranges with intervening flats the true treeless Thibet. My great Mt. is called [Choyarribo?] said to be a long way N.E. of this and south of Cholomoo rising out of the plain of Thibet. I ascended a S.E. slope today to 14,000ft all grass, no jungle but scanty trees of pine etc. The weather was so bad that my view was limited to the immediate neighbourhood of my position and I was at 14,000 amongst shallow valleys quite unlike anything Himalayan, all grassy with scarce a patch of snow. The Himal. flats ascended full 1000ft higher than any where I have been and I doubt not the snow line is [proportionally] elevated. I procured a great many new plants, some of them Thibetan type. The Lachen river runs north from this 1 1/2 march, through low hills and flats and then turns East to Cholomoo. My information is gradually becoming more precise and I have had long talks with the Singtam Soubah, who appears intelligent and trusty and knows the Lachoong route well. He assured me there is no snow north of this on to Dijauli where the road is highest he cannot exactly say, but 3 marches beyond this were the roads join all is [blue?] and you descend all the way to Dijauli of this he is positive. All agree calling country Mai'dan even my Lepcha and Bhothea coolies and this I confess staggers my preconceived notion of the Thibetan plain and has led me to make the most pointed enquiries. Happily I have now, what I always wanted, a modicum of [comparison?] and both the Singtam and Lachen Soubahs, and others agree in the affirmation, that hence north of Dijauli the country is very like this only the hills are lower, quite naked and still more sloping, the flats larger No villages are seen from any distance, and it is up and down the whole way. The road winds amongst high hills and crosses lower, is always good through stoney, crosses no snow but little patches are frequent on many ridges which rise above the valleys as high as those above the river. Dijauli is very cold stoney and barren and mountainous or hilly. Perpetual snow lies very sparingly on some of the ridges seen in various directions north of [Zalies?] interspersed. He too asserts that the general features of Thibet are like this all I can say is, that this country is as little like Sikkim as it is to my preconceived notion of Thibet and I was particularly struck with the mt. valleys this morning and considering how violent the contrast is between these hills, valleys and [roads?] and them only 5 miles south of us, I do now wonder at the people calling calling Maidan though the bona fide flats is incomparably inferior to the [Yangma?] terraces, in extent and level surface. The Soubah says I shall see as much and as long as I like from Lachung, over the plain of Thibet and Cholomoo but that I shall see range upon range of hills and very little flats like this river terrace, all stoney and barren, with snowy mountains about. The descent from Lachong to this Cholomoo Maidan is not great - If as it appears Choyarribo is near Cholomoo and in sight close to Powhunry, the Cholomoo plain cannot be expected to be very level and if further, Powhunry be with [Doubia Lah?] - three such mountains indicate a very rugged country - my notion is yours too, that a table land extends N of [Sikkim] this declines no doubt from Powhunry (perhaps from Chumalari) west to my position - it also declines north to the [Yarron?] I am now assuredly well north of all characters [in?] Himalayan features in this longitude though not if the watershed which high or low (undoubtedly lower than the ranges South of me) is the true Himalayan axis - I feel myself quite out of Sikkim here, though by no means in Thibet, still I could fancy myself in a table land this morning, when at 14,000ft I wandered amongst broad mountain ridges with shallow valleys, no snow and the rocks only cresting the ridges - [?] and access the [Yarron?] (which flows near to and little below the level of this town) the hills are more rugged and the flats smaller, but none rise to such height, though so rugged and incessant, that it is a months journey for laden yaks to the Salt Country which is no great actual distance. From Dijauli east to the 'great lake of the Yarron' (these people call it) the whole country is mountainous-flats of various extent like that of [P'haii?], some sandy, some stoney, all bare, access between all the ridges - The villages are never seen from a distance and all like this collection of stone hovels on the slopes of flats between the ranges. Llasa stands on a great plain, its Gompas being visible for half a day's journey all round. The horizon is rocky and very hilly but the Soubah does not recollect seeing perpetual snow any where. There is no plain as large as Llasa any where else that he knows of in Thibet. The town itself is hilly and hence [?] no other part if the plain of Thibet is plain like Llasa all is Mai'dan like this! but not a continuous flat of half a day's extent. The Yarron is very rapid, but no where cuts a very deep channell its bed rocky in many places. Below Llasa of it is navigable, but he has seen no boats above that town and there are none at Dijauli i.e. he saw none P'haii occupies a mai'dan surrounded by high hills exactly like these, but bare and stoney after leaving it and crossing three hills, you descend towards Dijauli always crossing other low ranges. One of my coolies, an excellent man knows it well and confirms this. He says that all round the base of Chumulari are ranges of stoney hills with flats every where I have indeed toiled for views, and would give willingly 1000R for a good prospect from 15000ft but so uniformly misty in this region that I quite despair, and often think how much credit is due to travellers, who toil for geographical discovery alone, with no love of Natural History to draw them in. What I saw today, and from the Zemu, perfectly coincides with what the people say of all these hill tops, that they are broad grassy, with shallow ravines and no great mountains amongst them - how far we are to trust their further comparison with the Thibetan Plateaux, is another question. Lachang should tell us volumes - what weighs most with me is that throughout my long conversations with my own collies, Nimbo and the Soubahs, they are always referring to and comparing with the features around me, in E. Nepal and Sikkim. I never could elicit the remotest comparison. You have every where and every day's march mountains like there is their constant affirmation, now this has all the appearance of a very mountainous plateaux, and is no doubt the verge of the Thibetan ditto thought better grassed, wooded and watered, and more varied, though perhaps equally free from very lofty ridges or [peaks] and very deep valleys. Little rain falls here, and little snow in Winter comparatively speaking, though enough to render it uninhabitable further south the rain and mist become gradually less and less ceasing where the vegetation ceases. It is very windy too here, another Plateaux feature. 17th I have had another talk with the Singtam Soubah who questioned me about England and Calcutta he has been to Pumeah and volunteered the remark that the [Cheen] Maidan was quite another affair [than] that of Pumeah the latter was a flat maidan, the former no where so flat and every where mountainous. I am bothered again about getting to the Pass, the Tchebu Llama's letter (which I could not get translated till arriving here) says nothing about a hill pass - only "take the Sahib to the frontier beyond Samdong" - I am at Samdong and the Lachen Soubah is [?] on at a fearful rate. The Singtam Soubah is the head man but I prefer his ignorance. I have acquainted (Campbell with further particulars) I hope he will get the Tcheba Llama to write to the Singtam Soubah and tell him as he did Campbell what the Pass really is - I [?] [?] insisting on Kongra [Pahar/Pabat?] and the stone boundary. What a shuttlecock I have been this past 3 months
Ever your affectionate Jos. D. Hooker

P.T.O
Notes on paper appended to first page of letter
B.H. Hodgson
With a skin and bottle

You need not return me Darwin's letter nor the others

Camp Samdong
July 19/49

My dear B

Your long and kind letter of the 30th June has this day arrived with the much acceptable brands of Tea. It would have been well had I given up the cutting and hewing line, as you (too late) wisely advise, but really I was at a loss what to do and did, do feel sure that to give up here, is to expose myself to a quadruple amount of annoyance elsewhere - If I give this pass up, I may as well give up Lachoong too, for to find, or cut one's way is equally impossible - Meepo knows neither way, and the Quaber I still as all along suspect - It is all and ever part of it the Rajah's doing and as I have said over and over again this 10 months, except under fear or coercion there is no place for me. After all I did get something for my cutting and tearing. The Th'londe and [Genui?] the former running W to Kinchin, and cutting off the great Mt chain from the long spurs of the Thibetan table land and the sources of the Genui, amongst the low (comparatively) hills of the latter, are points of moment and besides this I can now connect the geog, of that frontier - W to Kinchin with this (I hope) East to Powhunry true it cost a month of such a life as I hope never to spend again, but my curiosity to know the features of that quarter, (behind the visible ranges) and the course of so large a stream as the T'hlonok must ever have been an aching void - Especially when I should have found how singularly anomalous this quarter is. Again, I am in no hurry to reach Lachoong even were my prospects there better than here, for I may be weeks and never see the length of my hands so perpetual are the fogs of this region. I am clearly out for all the rains and August has no rain, September with heavier rain has clearer weather a great deal. Lastly I think I have made out a point of exceeding interest - that Kongra Lama. the frontier [by] this route is bona fide the water shed! the true frontier of bare table land, and grass and [?] low thought it be as also, that what I may see from Lachoong will be inexplicable without this bit. Look you dear B - The Singtam Soubah called on me this morning, and as usual I talked him into the most delightful humor, told him tales of my younger days, of all the Bens in Scotland and Papa's pulling me up precipices after plants and such like when he volunteered to give me a geography of N. Sikkim and Thibet, called for paper, rice and charcoal and squatting on the wet ground (which has given me a touch of lumbago) he knocked off really an excellent chart, making the Mts. of heaps of rice and drawing the routes and rivers - I send you a copy you will remark that he cannot tell N and S well amongst Mts and that I take it his Lachoong pass ridge should run [E and W?] not N and S [Kancheng jow?] Is my great Mt (alias Choyarribo) it is very holy and Poojahs offered annually to it. Cholamoo is undoubtedly a table land, declining West and North - Kongra Paber he assures me is continuous with the plateaux and the boundary of the bare mountains and grassy ones. All the Lachen waters come from South of it, - from Cholamoo to [East[ or low hills like these to the West. He forgets the name of the great Mt he places North of the Lachoong Pass - I presume it should be East and that it is Waugh's Powhunry he says it is a little higher than Kanchen jow. Immediately N of Kongra Lama is [Genoo/Geroo?] a large Thibetan village, and no doubt the reason why they visit by progress in this direction - Waters flow North from thereabouts, or rather N.W. to the Y. Tsampoo, but is tortuous amongst ranges of hills in Thibet, that it is difficult to guess their direction the [?] (of Campbell's [?]) is the largest - At the back of Kinchin the country is very mountainous and uninhabited K is visible from Dobtah, but no further the country is altogether so mountainous that neither Kanchen jow, Doubia lah or Chumulari are seen from any distance at all - Hence doubt Turner's silence about all this stupendous and superior range west of Chumulari the Soubah thinks probably the head of the Yarron! but is not sure, at any rate great water flow thence to the Yarron. From the back of Kanchenjunga and he thinks from N.E. of it even, the [Arun] waters rise. He knows of no stream from Kamchang to the Yarron. Now you see the probability even, of Kongra P alias Kongra Lama being the water shed, renders me extremely anxious to visit it. Everyone says it is a low spur, never snowed till late in the season. Not a mt. ridge at all, and as perhaps the lowerst Himal Pass I do long to see it - If you did not know how weary I am of [?] after Mt. views you would not wonder at me heart's not bounding at the prospect of the Lachoong view. I know what it will be over and over again I shall climb the Pass to see nothing I Soubahs worrying me and wearying my people - Even granting I get this length. But is all comes of Sikkim this halfway between the two great Mt groups is the most curious, and I shall leave it thus unexplained, if such is my doom with hearty sorrow. Every additional bullying and obstacle makes me more cautious and guarded and for God's sake dear B don't advise my leaving this route - If Lachoong is really to be more practicable - Amen there's lots of time for that too. I do hope C. will write to the Rajah before he gives this Kongra Lama (alias Kongra Paber) it is promised me and let me stick here here till the answer comes. Do consider it is 1 1/2 march N. of this and with these Macadamized roads. What a distance that is north of my now remote position north too of my dearly beloved Kancheng jow do look out for it and "pensee a moi" If the apparent obstacles have induced Campbell to recall me home, recall the recall I beseech you - fool that I was in my ignorance to say "I personally did not care 6d for such a p" it is of all points the most interesting and be that as it may - any [?] in the quarter is fatal to my prospects in another I ascended an average Mt of this district yesterday it was 14,000ft about and I had not a particle of jungle in