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NZSL/HOD/5/5/31 · Pièce · 8 Jul 1849
Fait partie de Non-ZSL Collections

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

NZSL/HOD/5/5/32 · Pièce · 12 Jul 1849
Fait partie de Non-ZSL Collections

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

NZSL/HOD/5/5/39 · Pièce · 2 Sep 1849
Fait partie de Non-ZSL Collections

PRIVATE

Yeumtong Sept 2nd [18]49

Dear B
Yesterday I wrote you and fulminated an epistle to C at the same time whilst I get your telling me not to scold him any more excellent advice, the best - for what are the use of my hints, or bold blow ups? What gets my back up is, that I got no support from Campbell and I cannot tell you the sleepless nights this foolish affair of the Lepcha Shikari has cost me, not on the man's or my own account, but from the fear (all but amounting to conviction) that an affair which I have told all hands I regard as most grave, will be stirred by him. I left in the position of a fool who has made a demand about nothing. You who know what it is to be left in the lurch at a pinch - what it is to have to maintain your own position, dignity, respect, character and all besides having to carry your own way can best appreciate my position. This this hour he has never reported the Choongam Lama's insolence and the Lachen Soubah's obstruction to the Rajah and he never will, to this hour he refrains from insisting on my being treated like a gentleman, though he knows full well that the Rajah's orders are that I am not to be considered in Sikkim.
Now Hodgson mark this - he has blamed me [3] times, not angrily or harshly, nor given me a moment's vexation thereby and I only quote this as contrast. I am blamed 1st for giving my promise that I would not enter Cheen when I saw that the thing was impracticable and even making out the passes with that view (taken by all the people for granted) was impracticable and even making out the passes with that view (taken by all the people for granted) was impracticable and that I believe my pursuits would most seriously be impeded and that the inevitable failure would be regarded as a triumph 2nd for crossing the Thlonok into Tibet, when I followed the spirit and the letter of yours and C's injunctions to go ahead. Guilty as best I could when finally opposed or at a loss I was both decisively opposed at Samdong, and at a loss about the road I took that I thought would lead to the Pass, I did not believe I was in Cheen and had not a ghost of a reason for believing I was
3rd for not taking the Soubah's word and coming back from the upper Samdong, when I held in my hand Campbell's order to proceed to Kongra Lama and had by patience and bribery and perseverence (of which he has no idea) through Nimbo's active help made out that Kongra Lama was the Pass as independently indicated by him Campbell. I only quote these things as contrast to this - that of all the complaints I have forwarded to C if the conduct of Rajah's authority and people not one has called forth the allusion of his disapprobation from him. On the contrary, the tender of his correspondence is to blaming me * them; of his order to uphold them and to depress me - am I wrong in saying as I do in my yesterday's to himself that my complaints, tend to prejudice me in his eyes? It is harsh I grant, but as I tell him too on my honor as a Gentleman I will hold my tongue for ever but he shall know the reason

NZSL/HOD/5/5/51 · Pièce · 11 May 1850
Fait partie de Non-ZSL Collections

Moldah

May 11/50

My dear Brian
Here we are at last and comfortably housed for [?] [?] by Mrs. Campbell's father Dr. Lamb such a fine hale old gentleman who reminds me greatly of John Crawford now in England. We have given up [?] which is said to be a [?] defaced as it will soon be an effaced monument of the former greatness of India. The [?] are now and have been for many years removed by cartloads to ]?] where every one who can muster 5 rupees must have a [?] home I have detailed our [?] and facilities to Campbell and so shall not trouble you with the [?] of that most treacherous of all proceedings progress in India. My letters from England and 4 from Falconer were awaiting me here. They announce the death of my venerable Grandmother who has for [?] [?] [?] been no less conspicuous for her unappeasing charities and piety than she was for 30 before for her rare beauty, fascinating manner and acquirements. It was impossible to know and not to venerate her and little as I saw of her it was quite enough to make me love her more I always longed to be with her, but as I have often told you my poor now bereaved Grandfather [?] managed to make me so exquisitely miserable when a boy that I shunned [Gt. Gamworth?] and ever since and nought but dire necessity [?] took me there - of other news I have not a syllable but that my mother is remarkably well and [Bessy] too. We have managed to get some [?] along the banks of the river and have picked up about 300 species of weeds. The white wild Rose amongst them whose appearance is [?] to say the least of it. I believe it grows no where but in the plains of India. I am as you may suppose sick, weary and disgusted of this life already and miss all my Dorjiling friends most terribly. I certainly never expected to have at my time of life and so far from home such yearnings as I have felt and that too in the almost unexpected society of a most excellent and amiable compagnon de voyage. Thomson is all alive jumping like a cat out of the [book] and scuttling along the banks like a [?] after plants. We get a long walk every morning and he greatly eshews another during the evening together with [?] of the above [?] his on the banks. We are now [?] in the [clay?] of the Gangeta/ic?] valley which is to me the great enigma of Indian geology. I found amongst Thomas's maps one of yours out of 'Murray's Geography' which I will return from [?] i.e. book of Campbell's. We have had breezes always [?] of course but they keep the temperature always below 100 often as low as 94 in the day. No hot winds and no rain or storm for the last [8] days. The Perry's are all well. I have no other letters from England but [dreary?] details from my Mother of poor Mr. Turner's demise and news from Calcutta. I am [reasonably] busy considering the heat and sleep gloriously, have been reading Humboldt [?] [?] with renewed profit and [?] up some old notes and new facts. Still on my good Dorjiling [?] and half wish to fall ill and have to go back per force I shall be all right when I get to Churra and on a new field. I miss Campbell's children more than I can tell and sigh for their light hearts, though why I can hardly say, for I reflect with little pleasure on the days of my own childhood and consider every year of my life as on the whole much happier than the past. Be that as it may I had no idea the youngsters would have wrapped themselves so round my getting elderly heart.

God Bless you my dear Brian
Yr ever affectionate
Jos. D. Hooker