Zoological Society of London
11, Hanover Square
London W
June 29 1858
Dear Sir
The enclosed letter was written some days ago, and was accidentally put away with yours of the 10th instead of being posted.
If you approve of what we propose to do I will remove the Boxes from the Clearing Agent's hands as soon as I receive your authority to do so. We have two find lambs of Ovis Vignei born from the sheep sent home by Gen[eral] Heaisey
I intend to [?] a drawing of them in the "Zoological Sketches" of which I enclose a Prospectus. I shall be delighted to add your name to my list. I shall be delighted to have it.
I am dear Sir
Yours very faithfully
D.W. Mitchell
Belgrave Mansions S[outh?]
My dear Hodgson
I had a talk with G. Marshall today about your portfolios from wh[ich] he seems to have already abstracted such memoranda as [?] on the [Capitonida?] wh[ich] is the [work?] he has in hand. The rest of the contents of y[ou]r collection he wishes to catalogue for Hume's benefit and such a catalogue is a [?] for the [?] of naturalists generally. He hopes to find time for clarifying and cataloguing all y[ou]r drawings before he leaves England and in the interval will get Hume's reply to the letter wh[ich] he has written [explaining?] all that he has seen at Alderley. We both think that [regard?] being had to his own available space you had better send me portfolio at a time. He will write to you himself on this subject. I don't think from the tenor of our conversation that Hume's [?] book presents itself to him in a more definite shape than it does to me. But there appear to be some printed sheets of the work on their way to Engl[and] and these will show us something of the plan and if you approve of this and Hume expresses a wish to profit by your notes for the rest of his book you can hereafter supply him with the materials he requires. This methinks w[oul]d be preferable to sending out all yr portfolios indiscriminately. Marshall is evidently incorrect and may be relied on for [?] that he undertakes. He expects to publish his first [no?] of the Barbets on the 1st prox[imity]. I shall not be able to visit you for another fortnight or 3 weeks - My daughter Mrs [Strepwell?] will have I find to leave London to seek a milder climate in the I. of Wight. I have been looking at the so called Maracus Pelops in the Zoo, the animal is quite different from that I believe you to have described. I s[houl]d like to see from figures and notes of all the monkees your collection may contain. You might put these with the first portfolio wh[ich] you send up to us.
With Kind Regards to
Mrs. H.
Ever Y[our]s S[incerel]y
A. Grote
33 Upper Berkeley Street
Portman Square
8 Feb[ruaru]y 1870
My dear Mr. Hodgson
I had a talk with Mr. Grote yesterday about y[ou]r portfolios. What I want to do myself is to send the whole of them as they are to Mr. Hume, as agreed in my brother's care, he sails next months and there they could be sorted, translated and arranged with the greatest convenience and incorporated at once with Humes work; Mr. Grote does not believe in Hume and I was unable to convince him that the book would certainly be published, and in that case he proposed and I assented to, keeping them in abeyance for a short time and having them up one by one to sort and catalogue; but on returning home and again reading over Humes letters (parts of which I enclose) I thought three was sufficient guarantee for the publishing of the work, and that the sending of your portfolios out direct would be a saving of both tie and labour. I have written to Mr. Grote to this effect. I have been hard at work lately and so these has been a little delay in answering you. I feel a little delicacy in proposing the wholesale sending out of your treasures to India but I am convinced of their safety and that it is the greatest opportunity of utilizing them likely to occur, and you have been so kind about them already of course. Everything would appear in your name.
With my Kindest regards to yourself and Mrs. Hodgson
Y[our]s very truly
G.F.L. Marshall
To Brian Houghton Hodgson
118 Cambridge Street
Warwick Square
S.W
12th April 1870
My dear Mr. Hodgson
The pamphlet that Hume published has arrived and I send you a copy of it by book-post this day. It contains a great deal of useful information and it is a thorough field ornithologist's handbook, but it requires revision and systematizing and that I hope it will get when published in its complete form. We have had no answers as yet to our letters to him and are anxiously awaiting them. If we are able to induce him to come home for a year so as to combine his immense store of notes from all sources with that already on record in libraries and revise the synonymy it may be made into a most complete work. Mr Grote tells me that you wish to subscribe to our monograph and also to Hume's book. It is very good of you indeed to back us up after you had for so long relinquishes the pursuit and got out of the habit of interesting yourself in birds. I was going through the Journal of Asiatic Society the other day and I was quite overwhelmed with the immense number of your contributions to it on every subject. Are you coming to town this season, I hope so. I should much like my eldest sister to meet you she should thoroughly appreciate so staunch a liberal and especially one from India and she is a great friend of your friends the Colvilles.
Please give my kindest regards to Mrs. Hodgson and believe me
Y[ou]rs very truly
G.F.L. Marshall
Zoological Society of London
11 Hanover Square
London W
23 July 1874
Dear Sir
I think your view of the Bye-Laws is correct, and that your annual contribution will be £2.
As soon as I get the order of Council for your admission I will write you again.
Yours truly
P.L. Sclater
Secretary
B.H. Hodgson Esq.
Bhomsong Teesta
XMAS [1848?]
Dear H
Many happy returns of the day from Campbell and myself. I arrived here two days ago and yesterday the letters I first sent you from Pemiongchi were returned to C. both himself and Mrs. C being away. I want none of the things therein begged for except some [Hoolyrah?] Tobacco which perhaps [Eli R.?] will get for him and a light load of brown paper - [Langrip Lepcha?] is a good faithful coolie and will soon find a companion to follow him - them the books and the cigars are all I want and a little parcel of note-books which Muller will send you. I wrote you last by the Havildar and the letter went 3 days ago. I was then on my way here where I found Campbell waiting for me to my surprise for my [?] were all fake ones and denied to be so. I suppose to facilitate my sending away the Havildar. It rained hard and always so that I have little to say of the route. The Rajah is here such a droll little object, the presentation etc is a perfect mummery conducted with propriety enough but a perfectly tedious show of poverty and pride. The Dewan is a thorough faced liar still a well conducted man in all his intercourse with us except on politics. A yellow striped Buceros here do you know it? He has been all over Thibet and gives the information most willingly - is a [Shukan?] and jolly rogue - we get on capitally for he is always civil and respectful though I would not trust him 2 days running for the latter qualities. Politics have progressed C insists on a proper [?] and the only one [?] and fit is the [Heir app's]. Dewan, a dead enemy of the R's D and a man of more liberal and enlightened ideas. He also insists on my visiting Lachen and Lachong next year. March-April. The R. is thoroughly frightened, or rather I should say bewildered we are off at once for Mainanchoo the high Mt. with the rock you see from [fillapabar?]. I shall then go S. along the spur which divides Teesta from Gt. Rungeet. Then across to Pemiongchi and so on to Jongri. I do hope to get some geology this way. I like the Lepchas betteer the more I travel amongst them.
Please send to Pemionchi
Ever your affectionate
Jos. D. Hooker
P.S. I send you a fine Yak
Sunday 1849
My dear H
I have just got through all I intend to send down and thats but half my collections and will be with you as soon as I possibly can get the coolies away with safety. That must not be till the weather breaks for here we are delayed with rain and such miserable wretched weather - It blew so hard t'other night as to wet my boxes in the Verandah, with the torrents of rain it is indeed a dismal climate and if my things are caught in such weather as this going down it will be much deplorable. I sent you Lyell pray excuse my cutting it to which I was irresistabl[y] impelled. I quite envy you the first reading of it, being convinced you will be greatly gratified.
For heavens sake say nothing of it at present but I do believe that I have caught Waugh in an error of 100ft in the height of fillapahar! Muller is convinced I am right. What a delicious morsel it will be: just fancy the [?] snob who measures Kinchin to inches with 1000 guineas appliances out of a hundred in the fillapahar. The fact is I expect he did this sort of work very carelessly devoting the [?] minute attention only to the great objects - in this he is right and were it not that he is a bombastic fellow this would be beneath my notice. As however fillapahar is my station from where I work all other heights I must not be 100ft out in it. W. says "fillapahar highest point" 287ft above Darjeeling hill - now your house is fully that, whether worked by Calcutta or Muller's house, or by angles all of which agree to 3ft [?] Lane's house which perhaps he means for top of fillapahar is good 160 above your's. The real top of F.P. is a mile further back, but that he cannot mean, or else his map is wrong and his height 200ft wrong. The document is Waugh's own and pompously signed "compared" A.S. Waugh and yet we have it in Tenglo 11,0076 feet! I mention these things to shew you how sloppy he is and how ridiculous his pretentions. I send you a few letters which I think will please though hardly interest you - I was joking with [Tim] Thurman/Thuman who asked me to meet him at Sahamupore but I suppose I was awkward in my wit, for I cannot allow that (like some other people) he can't understand a [repartee?]. Harvey is Prof. of Botany at Trin. C. Dublin a most gentlemanly and dour fellow was even Col. Treasurer at the Cape whereby hangs a most pitiful tale of real life. Bowling writes to ask C to come up and take his duties. C responds asking B to ask me when Thurman/Thuman is coming up. They must be very green to suppose I would allow [Tim] (who comes up to [?] with me) to be trapped into medical duty for his 2 or three month's holiday!
[Sammler?] ejects Muller on the 1st February and I do not think his house will be ready for him as however he will be able to get all his things in it and only want a [dry] sleeping room. I have so far trespassed on your kindness as to offer him my bed at fillapahar for a week during our absence. A bed is all he wants. I will give you two days warning of my advent. There is no prospect of its clearing up for several days Muller says - it is just raining as hard and foggy as last August cold withal and gusty at times
Your ever affectionate
Jos. D. Hooker
Darjeeling
Feb 8 1849
My dear H
Thanks for your kind letter I am getting really through my work now. I see the end and packing but the great curvaceous Rhododendrons and Conifers from my journey are not really dry yet. The weather however improves and I do most earnestly hope to get down soon. Now too the weather has cleared beautifully and I want to be in the field. Muller is working too as hard as his Liver lets him and I have had a good deal to do bringing the Baroms to rights the excellent as Muller is as to calculations he does not jump at contrivances or new laws for reductions etc. We are daily expecting a box of Barometer tubes from Calcutta and I have ordered [6?] new tubes from England with God knows (I hope my Father will honor the bills) what other instruments from England. Also 2 portable Barometers of Neuman's [contract?] which are at Scott Thurman & Co in Calcutta tho' no use doing things by halves and overdoing is impossible. Many thanks for the offer of the Reviews but please not more. What with my chart etc. I am busy all night. Wallanchoon took good 6 hours to work out, there being no table for such low temperatures, it comes out 16,642ft - the Calcutta observations giving only 21 the difference from the Darjeeling. I like to get things so close because it will rile (as the Yankees say) the Surveyors. The elevation I reached on Kanghacham pass 15,746 Choonjerma Pass 15,186 I have still Nanga Pass to work, about equal Kanghacham I suppose. Jongri i.e. the elevation I reached on Kinchin will entail a fearful calculation as the little Barom was injured. Wallanchoon is a good way N. of top of Kinchin (i.e. N.W.) Yangma is I presume the loftiest permanently inhab village on this side of the Himal. that has ever been visited. I have not worked it out yet; but I presume it 13,500 or 14,000ft. I do wish your would come to Tayler with me on our return from Terai. there is no view of Nepal, Sikkim and the Snows at all to compare with it. You remember the Terai soils are very curious. I long to go over them with you. If the weather clears I shall get down in a week. What tent furniture shall I bring? I cannot conceive what has come over Falconer, who I must give up if things go on so he certainly has again affronted the excellent Colville and I cannot but think he is crazed. I shall send my things to the Garden as usual but tell my Serot who goes with them to keep an eye to their being [booked to there and report to me?]. I wish you could have a talk with Darwin, we shall in England and make 2 of a quartet bachelor's party at his home in Kent. I was not aware of that curious fact about the silk-worms developments is it more remarkable in them than in other Moths? [Praise?] my genteel paper my Dad sent me a lot of it. So [Moultan?] has given in, not fallen as the papers have it, in my opinion. I am heartily glad that the Soldiers had not the credit of taking it though deeply humiliating we ought to feel it that it was not stormed by us even at so late a day and still more that it was not taken months ago.
This bright day is just charming
Ever your affectionate
Jos. D. Hooker
Darjeeling Febry 13 1849
My dear H
Many thanks for your long and kind letter I am getting on well with my packing [8?] cases are full and I shall have nearly as many more to put [up/out?] for which the materials are nearly ready. Still the Kinchin plants are not nearly dry - I have just been up looking at them. If I cannot [reduce?] them and was to bring some undried down with they will be spoiled. [Sykes?] letter is a very good one indeed too Ethnographical for me not for my wishes for indeed I shall never be grateful enough if you can only drive some Ethnology into my addled head. It is a study to which I should become passionately fond had I time and opportunity to do but with me it would be indeed a matter of time, having no turn for Languages at all and much technical matter to get [up?] Col. Sykes is partly right in what he says about the [?] but I should think wrong as far as he applies his meaning to the [Libellus?] that is to be intended for all and to contain such information only as can be conveyed in the Language of the country with the interjection of as few newly coined words as possible - is it not so? On the other hand he may mean what he says for a delicate caution against making the book too learned. An education, to be liberal must embrace the subjects of the [maps?] is it not so? It's no use now dwelling longer on the subject, please lay the letter where we may find it easily again. Thank him, so much when you write for the message he sends me and say that we have had no lack of Barometers and attained a greater perfection of results than can often be shown I do like coming to a nicety with Barometers on this account the measuring heights by the B is a purely scientific and philosophical process and every step towards accuracy is not valuable to me because it makes the measured height a few feet or so nearer the truth, but because it is a [rejected?] appreciation of the disturbing atmospherical elements. In the application of the Barom there is nothing [?] or empirical. The proportion between the depression of the column of mercury and ascent was not the first measured by [angling?] or carrying the Bars. up miles. It was [inductively?] sought and found. Every element in the calculations required were determined at home by persons who never required to see the Instrument. It is one of the most beautiful applications of pure science to practical purposes that ever emanated from the brain of man and just as I after [reducing?] a plant to its Nat. Ord., seek further to reduce its every structural and functional peculiarity to the type of the order to which it belongs so I seek to know every anomaly in Barometric operation. In Trig. operations the case is wholly different. Your Instrument, Eye and Arithmetical powers are all brought up into play, but hardly your head any further. It is no thanks to the observer that his instrument is perfect very little that it is well adjusted the calculations require no profundity of learning, nor if they did do they give any play to the mental powers. If in error, the cause must be in the Instrument or observer and gives me no pain or trouble now a Barometer error does, for it is done in about all cases to atmospheric fluctuations which I seek to appreciate locating angles is hence a bore, but Barometers a real pleasure, for every one worked (if by the head and not by rote) teaches something. The boiling point ranks in this respect with the Bar. but unfortunately the instrumental errors are so great the laws regulating its use so vaguely defined and the conditions under which it must be observed so difficult in fulfillment that you can never tell whether the observer instrument or philosopher are in fault. We have just been trying 5 thermometers any of which would be pronounced by myself as a very good instrument. They give Darjeeling elevations varying 3000ft (three thousand feet). The three best were made by Newman for me with extreme care. 2 agree perfectly, the third only 300ft from the others! an error due to the Barometer being lower when the latter Thermom. was made. The height of the Barom is registered on all these three at the time they were made and by this I reduce the error of these two from 300 to 100ft. Provided Strachey's therms really did boil (and it requires a deal of boiling for good results. Sykes says 1/4 hour at least) or there be no material error in his instrument. You may assume his elevations as too low: for which I can give intelligible reasons, whether the true or no general positions I will go over with you - if these be not 500ft between them I will not mind for it is of no consequence for us to know the elevation higher (though it is [necessary?]) for me with whom the Barometer is an index of atmospheric phenom. to work out my [?] [?]. What can Thomson know of the country N. of the Lakes? Except the other Strachey has been there too - all the Strachey papers describe the plateau as a plain with the Mts rising from it, as Land from Sea and I doubt not it is so however much many parts may be continuously rugged and unthinking observer in one case do not see it or careless ones, as Thurman, do not recognise our meaning of a plain. Any extended surface from which Mt. ranges rise, there dividing area of nearly equal elevation and tolerably flat must be philosophically regarded as a plain, having great the predominance of the Mt. masses be. What is the plain of Quito - of Patagonia of the country [8th?] of the [?] Mts. of Australia? as you say, it may become a dispute of words, as I still think that dispute of the Snowline is against Humboldt's term "Himalayan Thibet" is if not a plateau what is it? Certainly not a valley, equally sure not a Mt. chain - The very fact of Thomson's getting on a plain at 17,000 is conclusive of the country being ["Stepbe"?]. I therefore quite add my humble [?] to your conclusions. No observations Thomson's on the lowest part of Thibet (10,000) and where most cut up by rivers of great volume or to compare with Strachey's made [towards?] the Lakes or all our information collected here and in Nepal - The Country N. of Kinchin to [?] Subtrop is a dead level. K. rises out of a plain. The top of [Jiminoo?] is just seen from [Daptil?] over a land margin. The Thibetan wants a telescope to see objects just rising above the [horizon?] he thinks it raises the object which really is below the horizon, above it. "He cannot see the head of a man on the horizon with naked eye but can with Telescope: this is not due he says to the T. magnifying but to its raising a man's head which should be below the horizon above it! I used the term" height I realised by way of trying to be explicit - not seeing (as I do now) it's ambiguity, it refers to Mt. [Kang?] the top of which I did not reach but towards which top I ascended to 15,746ft. I was then still 2 hours from the top ([fid] the guide) it opens to East and as at Wallanchoon when on top you see nought but a terrible valley in front, they say and you cross 2 other ridges before [debauching?] on the Maidan of Thibet. The ridges beyond both passes are oblique spurs from the great ranges. I was on top of Walanchoon 16,643ft [" a gene coon"] I very much underrated the height of these at the time. Yamgma village is 13,700 inhabited all the year round [Cosmos] was my only authority which says cult of grain on S. side 9900ft (English) or North 13,200ft I speak with great hesitation about the P.S. I was ever fearful of exaggerating my elevations and gave too little to the paper still I do not think myself 200ft out in giving 14,000ft as the lower limit and certainly there is no oak or other tree of any kind above 11,000ft - I have seen no Oak above 10,000ft or at it yet in N.W. tall Oaks reach 11,300, there are masses of anomalies man and grain going up here, and the snow coming down to meet them. Still these are only marvellous local phenom. and in no way whatever affect our arrangement of Himal Regions [Meridianal] or Latitudinal. No snow on Kinchin top requires much modific. and 7 nights of brown study with Segars and Tea to match. I said little or no snow unadvisedly there are not the bed and accumulations I expected but thereby hangs a long enquiry into the fall at above 20,000ft which must be very trifling indeed if my theory is good of the Met. Phenom of the Sikkim seasons and wind and [?] I must have the sea all over and up to the P.S. nothing else will do and the glacial beds of Yangma prove it were there no Thibet and Falconer to back it, or rather be backed by it. I saw no trace of volc. rocks Granite has been the agent and strong enough for ten times more. I will not forget the Hindu writer I see the Baboo going up (meet him or overtake him) I have no idea that he resides in the house he was not there this morning, I will see about it [Barnes?] writes [?] about Elephants he has sold all his to raise the wind and [Perry?] is gone on a tour I write to the latter [?]. Shall I speak to the Baboo? I will leave a splendid watchdog at the house and a Lepcha Sirdar if you think proper or tell Bishop to send [Birkiadans]
Feb 16
Your house is well guarded the 3 Cs keep good watch - walking in turns all night. The Baboo certainly never sleeps in the house. The Hin. writer says without being asked that he is to go down with me and I pretend I know nothing - I do hope to be down next week for certain. Rainy wretched weather.
Ever yr. affectionate
Jos. D. Hooker