[[1]]
Camp. Sheargottee -- 290 miles from Calcutta *1
on the mainroad to Benares
Feb[ruar]y 11 1848
My dear Father
I was very sorry to have been surprised by the date of sending letters by the last
(Feb 3) mail per Calcutta, when off the road & quite out of the reach of the Post
Office; but I was then botanising, upon a very interesting mountain, almost the only
one in lower Bengal at the time (& delayed off the road longer than I had
anticipated). My last letter to you was from Sir L. Peel's, I think, whose hospitable
roof I left for Government House soon after; for neither the Governor General nor
Lady Dalhousie will allow me to take up my quarters any--where but with them. Indeed I
cannot tell you how kind friendly they have been to me, *2 so much so as to rather
stand in my way, for as far as my pursuits are concerned I would rather be at Sir L
Peel's, or the Bot. Garden. Each of them full five miles from Calcutta & to walk there
in this part of Bengal is quite out of the question. I have now followed up the
arrangement I proposed of joining Mr Williams' Camp, & travelling with it for a month,
in preference to doing nothing in Calcutta. During this trip I have been most kindly
aided by Mr Colvile, advocate general, Ld Auckland's nephew, who is really as kind
to me as if I were his own son. He insists on my having his own Palanquin to travel
by & has fitted it up with every convenience, down to tea, sugar, provisions, plate, &
cup & saucer &c. My plans obliged me to travel Dawk (i.e. be carried by the Palkee,
to Mr William's Camp, at Taldangah, 80 miles beyond Burdwan, towards Benares). I
have received the services of one excellent Portuguese servant as black as my hat;
who has been some 10 years at sea: he is Calcutta-born, about 28 years old very quiet
& attentive & performs the duties of my table, bed, & clothing, thus saving me much
expense & trouble. I give him 20 Rupees a month, & already he assists me much
with my plant drying. As he had to be at the camp the same time (28th) as myself I
sent him on before, from Calcutta, paying his boat--hire to Hooghly, from whence he
walked west to Taldangah about 110 miles, at about 16 miles a day. He was
accompanied by with a plant
[[2]] collector, procured for me by the garden (at 10 Rupees a month) & took a part of
my paper, 1 Ream large brown which is carried by a Coolie (porter) from station to
station along the road. I then what is called "laid my Dawk" i.e. wrote to the
Postmaster at Hooghly to provide bearers (8) for my Palkee all along the road to
Burdwan, together with 1 torch bearer & 4 Bangys, bearers, who carry, one my
clothes & linen in 2 boxes slung over their shoulders on a log Bamboo, one my
instruments & bottles in 2 other boxes & two more paper. These 13 people are
changed at every 10 miles or so. I also directed the Post Master at Burdwan to lay
my Dawk on to Taldangah -- I then at Calcutta hired a boat, which took the Palkee & all
the bundles up to Hooghly & laid a Gig Dawk for my own person to the latter place,
in three stages. I arrived at Hooghly at 8 having left Calcutta at 3 the same morning
(about 47 miles), & then got into the Palkee & was carried off by 4 of the 8 bearers,
who changed with the other 4 every 5 minutes. At Burdwan where I arrived on the
following morning I staid[sic] the day with a newly married couple, a Mr & Mrs
McIntosh of the civil service the latter of whom I had met in Calcutta, they are very nice
people & she a Niece of Lady Grant, well acquainted with all my Edinburgh friends.
In the evening I started from Burdwan for Taldangah, overtaking my good serv[an]t a
few miles from the latter place on the following evening, & about 10 P.M. landed at
Williams' tents, where I found a Mr Theobald of Norwich, a Barrister in Calcutta who
has placed his son, a very fine lad & thoroughly fond of natural history on the Survey.
At this spot there are several excellent coal seams open & a Mr Watkins
superintendent (of some coal company) who was 1st manager of the Tea Company in
Assam. The first thing I did here was to hire two Hackeries, or native carts, one for
the Palkee, the other for all my other traps: these Mr William procured & thus
equipped, I was ready to go on with his camp the following
[[3]] morning.
Till the other day we have been marching over an elevated table-land, some 600 or
1000 ft above the Hooghly. The soil is hard, dry & quartzy, very barren & arid,
generally covered with stunted trees & thorny shrubs, chiefly Zizyphus, & grasses, a
few conical hills over 800 or 1000 ft above this, clothed with dry woods of the Saul
tree & Bamboos, from top to bottom. There are no Palms or Ferns, large grasses but
bamboo or other signs of a tropical vegetation; no mosses Liliums or Fungi. The water
courses all are empty, leaving sandy & rocky beds & the grass withered & dried up,
together with all the herbaceous vegetation. Even the Mango tree , Peepul, Banyan
& Bombax are scarce here but the Lac tree abounds every where[sic]. Whenever we
came near the hillocks I found a good many plants, some few in flower, but many in
good fruit. All are, I presume, common Bengal species, but new to me (& without
books I cannot give even the generic names, so ignorant do I find myself). I have
collected every--thing, & so arranged them as to present a good flora of the whole
road. At about 230 miles from Calcutta we came to a station called Fyt--Coree, near
the base of Paras--Nath *3, the highest hill in Lower Bengal, & an outlier of the
Vindhya range: it rises abruptly from out the table land to a height of about 4000 -4500 ft above the sea (but I have no tables books to reduce my observations with), & is
clothed with forest, all round the base & to within a few feet of its 5 or 6 craggy tops.
At its base, are many small conical hills, all wooded, with jungly ravines between, but
with its accessories the whole mt mountain does not cover an area more than 12 or 15
miles by 8 or 10, its long axis is about E[ast]. & W[est]. and its position to the N[orth].
of the main road. The place of ascent is a village hardly known to any one, & in no map on the
opposite side, buried in jungle, about 15 miles, by the road we took from Fyt--Coree
we went thither on two elephants, with a blanket each, & some
[[4]] provisions; but the jungle was so dense, the elephants having to break away the
branches of the trees with their trunks that we did not arrive till 2 P.M. I got obtained
many plants on the route, the elephants getting several otherwise inaccessible
species. Moderbund *4, the village at the North base of the mtn mountain is a beautiful
spot; surrounded with groves of Saul, Figs & Leguminous trees, a very few Toddypalms , & a little cultivation of Mustard, Wheat, Dole, Pulse and other grains. Close
to the temples of the village is a splendid Banyan & a Tamarind tree, together
forming a superb groupe[sic] of more irregular outline than either generally are assume
from owing to great age of the former tree , which appears to have lost its original trunk.
The Peepul, too is common, but not so fine a tree, & the Mango is also planted in
abundance. there are many more large & conspicuous trees, about the villages,
which I now know well by sight, but cannot tell you their names, till I get to my books.
Moderbund is a bigotted[sic] Hindoo [Hindu] village, full of temples & priests, very
picturesque, from the depth of the surrounding woods, through which the white
Domes, & spires &c peep & the mountain always affords noble features *5. Two
o'clock is so near sunset, that all the party gave up the mountain, myself & one of the
gentlemen alone determining to stay behind, with the blankets & all little articles of
provisions & ascend the following day. I also kept my Servant: an excellent aid, & the
only one I now have. Feb[ruar]y 15th. Dear Father, I have been so wholly engrossed
with work, as not to have been able to go on proceed with this letter till today. Last night, I
had set apart to go on with continue it, when, on going out at 9 PM., I saw the finest
aurora on the whole that I ever witnessed beheld, either in the Northern or Southern
hemisphere. This is a phenomenon, supposed to be so rare in or near the tropics that it
kept me up till past midnight observing & describing & when I did turn in, a rat took
such liberties with my head of hair, that I could not sleep & had to be out rise before
daylight to continue our march to this place, the last posting stage on the bank of the
Soane, whose sandy bed, of 3 miles broad, I have just walked across, collecting a
few
[[5]] plants by the way, in on an islet, mid way across the water. At this the dry
season, the water is all but gone, a few ankle deep streamlets alone through the sand
alone representing what, in the rains, is a torrent 3 miles broad, some 10 feet deep &
so rapid, as to be nearly impassable. The dry waste is now a miniature desert, along
whose opposite banks the trees & few scattered houses are lifted by refraction into
the air.
To return however to Paras--Nath, we ascended it on the following morning & spent
the whole day--light there. its sides are densely wooded with Saul (Shorea robusta) timber
for the prevailing standard, & Bauhinia as the only remarkable jungle climber, & twice
as much Bamboo as of any thing else. Two green Ferns appeared in abundance,
after the first 1000 ft, & together with a starved Cheilanthes, Adiantum & Selaginella
(the 3 latter common on the low ground) continued to the top. You will hardly believe
that a well--wooded mountain of (reputed) 7000 ft (but I expect only 5000) could rise
out of India, all but within the tropics, & present neither Palm, except a Phoenix Tree--Fern,
Lycopodium, Scitaminerias[?], Aroid, Piperaceaes, or Orchideous Epiphyte of any
consequence. No moss or Hepatica grows below 4000 ft, on trunk or rock, no foliaceous
Lichen, below that & scarcely any above: & not one fleshy Fungus. Such however, is
the parching effect of the N[orth]. W[est]. dry winds, that the soil throughout is
crumbly, & the Cryptogama at the top, consisting of a few crustaceous Lichens &
Creepers (not Hepaticae seen) are withered, brown, 7 covered with a Selaginella,
equally dead. The summit, commands a glorious view of the wooded & desert plains
of Bengal, curiously cut up with the crisscross[?] sandy beds of the now dry rivers.
The crags & richly wooded ravines of the Mt mountain are superb objects, & the village
of Modderbund, at the base, which, with its whose gilded little spires & gay flags, deeply
emblazoned in Tamarind & Banyan groves, forms a perfect picture of itself -- the
more remarkable, as being the only village that is visible. There are 6 tops to Paris
[Paras] Nath, rising from a curved ridge, all very steep & rocky & each crowned with
a platform & little white temple, of the size of your the Temple of Victory at Kew.
[[6]] There is, besides, a large temple a little below the ridge on the North face, sunk
in a hollow, very picturesque, square with a large dome & 4 spires at the angles. All
are neatly covered with white lime. In the little apical ones I was surprised to find a
slab of stone, with the feet of Boodh [Buddha] engraved in relief, whilst the larger had
many marble slabs, each with multitudes of little cross-legged Boodhs. My mind was
at once carried back to Adam's Peak in Ceylon *6, & the high places of the North of
India, where Boodhism [Buddhism] & not Hinduism prevails & where this less impure
form of Heathen worship has taken refuge. Idolatry worship as though it is be, it was
more comparatively gratifying to find it taking possession of this lovely spot, than to the
exclusion of the gross abomination of Brahminism, which shock the eye as much as
the senses. Now that I am on this the subject, I may add that this mountain & village
are all but almost unknown to the anglo-Indians: the very few who have ascended P.N.
Paris Nath have done so from the Southern side of Modderbund. I can get information
from no one, at first the natives were very rude & abused my serv[an]t whom I sent
to try & procure buy Fowls & milk. Amongst the Hindus, vegetable diet alone is to be
procured; but there are Mahomedans *7 in most villages, from whom eggs & fowls can
[1 word struck--through, illeg] be had. One morning I saw a Poojah or Hindu
ceremony of leading the God out, on a gilded cart (at Modderbund) drawn by
bullocks -- preceded by dancers & cymbal player. I was then informed, through my
companion Mr Haddon, who speaks the language well, that the village is supported
by tribes of central & western India, worshippers votives of a modification, I believe, of
Boodhism, who come here as pilgrims, take no part in the worship of the Brahmism
but ascend Paris Nath, bow themselves & deposit, perhaps, a little soil at each temple &
return to their far distant homes. They are a much finer race than the Bengalees, &
even than the mountaineers of Paris--Nath, who are an improvement on the
inhabitants of the plains. Toward the Mt top Mountain's top I found many plants new to
me; a pretty Clematis at 4000 ft or so, & a Barberry on the tops summits were the two
most characteristic of a cool climate. A grass (all withered), parasitic on the trees,
was a curious feature & there were traces of many
[[7]] herbaceous plants (Begonias, Vogrias?) but crisped to hay. These will be in
flower, during or after the rains, when I hope to visit the Mt mountain again for the sake
of the Cryptogama. A small squirrel, a few birds & a butterfly, were all the animal life
I saw. Descending in the afternoon we spent another night under the trees in this
delicious season, put by my plants, filled my note--book & slept soundly. The
following morning we returned with the Elephant to our former line of march, now
following Williams' camp, which we did not overtake for 5 or 6 days, & though
uncombed & unshaved for all that time, was more comfortable than in the noise &
bustle of his huge (disorganised between ourselves) camp of 4 tents & some 100
men, women & children. I got a good many new plants in the jungles at the foot of
Paris Nath & then proceeded West over barren, hungry, & thirsty alluvial plains; the
naked rock, cropping out here & there, or through wooded shallow valleys, (very
beautiful) bounded by low hills. White man is a great rarity, & only known in the
shape of a solitary Dawk traveller, on his way from or to Benares & so onward to the
N[orth]. or W[est]. Provinces or the one Road Surveyor Engineer a very nice fellow
(lieut[enant] Beadle of the E[ast]. I[ndia]. C[ompany]. Engineers) at whose post we
stopped a day, to examine the mineral springs close by. These <are> about 250
miles from Calcutta, & very interesting, bubbling up from rocks, 4 hot of 160 -- 190
temp with a cold spring between them not a stride from one a hot one on either side.
The waters are highly saline & scalding to the touch & several Confervae thrive in
them, of all which I have collected as a benefit for Harvey. Mr Haddon my companion
made me a plan of the place & is now finishing a pretty sketch of Moderbund from
Paris Nath. The next curious feature on the road is the Dunwar Pass, where the table
land we have been traversing for the last 200 miles suddenly falls some 800 ft &
from the Dunwar pass to Soane river is an alluvial flat, as level as a any bowling
green, less wooded in general than the upper country but with better Fici, Acacias,
Tamarind & more Toddy-palms. The Date (of this country) also commences at the D
Dunwar pass & is common thence on to the Soane: it is a pretty species, seldom
exceeding 12 ft &
[[8]] flowers abundantly. From hence Dearee we leave the road & turn up the Soane,
along a rocky ridge as far as Bidjegur, then turn N to North Mirzapore, from whence I
go probably to Calcutta, to get my things in order for Darjeeling, whence I shall try to get
to Catmandoo [Kathmandu] in Nepaul [Nepal], or else descend before the unhealthy
season commences & go to Cherra Poonjee [Cherrapunji] in the Cassya [Khasi] hills
& thence a little way into Ava, returning to Calcutta in Nov[ember]. I am so busy from
before daylight every day, as to be unable to give you any more details of
proceedings: & correspond with G.G.[Governor General] & Mr Colvile at their
request.*8 My collections are considerable, if not remarkable. I am in perfect health &
enjoying myself exceedingly but with no collectors have to dry all my plants. You will
I daresay write & thank the G.G. for all his and Lady D[alhousie]'s goodness, I have
been more one of his family than of his suite & please tell him that you are glad to
hear I have been aiding in the public[ation]. of Griffith's papers (which make a noise
here) also please tell Ld Auckland of Mr Colvile's kindness &c. Your most welcome
Dec[embe]r letters arrived last week & followed me along the road, I hope to answer
all in time. I have heaps more to write about, but as we march on every day I must
keep collecting & noting all day long. *9 Gurney will write about what I have done for
him, I had intended (& still do) writing to my grandmother about him. A Mr Claude
Hamilton passed along the road to Mirzapore & dropped a card for me en route can
this ne Miss Amy H's brother? I shall see at Mirzapore. One Finlay of Easter Hill, my
old college companion is partner in the house I draw on at Calcutta & I have seen
Rob[er]t Reddie several times, a steady merchant & worthy man.* I want much to
write to Wallich about Mr Cantor & his old friend Colly Comar, at the gardens & lots
of other people & things. I shall communicate my Meteorological observations &c to
the Asiatic Society here, of which Colvile is President; *10 as I must keep my name up
in Calcutta too. I write to Miss Henslow & Wheatstone by this, giving the latter an
account of the Aurora, which should be noticed at once, & which he will perhaps
communicate to the Phil[osophical] Club or R[oyal]. S[ociety]., or wherever he thinks
best. I grudge the time grievously; but it must be done. *11 Best love & sincere
regards to all. Please send my letters to Harvey, if you think proper. *12
ENDNOTES
1. The current name of the city of Calcutta is Kolkata
2. Text starting here and encompassing the rest of the sentence and the following
sentence have been enclosed in brackets, possibly later by JDH or by another editor.
These brackets most likely indicate text that should be omitted in published versions
of the letter.
3. The mountain which JDH refers to as "Paras--Nath" or "Paris--Nath" is now more
commonly known as Parasnath or Shikharji and is a major Jain pilgrimage
destination.
4. The village JDH refers to as "Moderbund" or "Modderbund" is referred to as
Maddaobund in his published Himalayan Journals and now more commonly known
as Madhuban.
5.The text "noble features" is written at the beginning of the line and an arrow
indicates it is to be inserted as transcribed.
6. The current name of the country Ceylon is Sri Lanka.
7. Mahomedan, meaning Muslim, is a term formerly common in western usage.
8. The address of the recipient appears here as the letter would originally have been
folded in such a way that it formed its own 'envelope'. The address is as follows: "Via
Southampton, Sir W. Hooker, Royal Gardens Kew, London."
9. Text from here to * has been enclosed in bracket, possibly later by JDH or by
another editor. These brackets most likely indicate text that should be omitted in
published versions of the letter.
10. The rest of this sentence has been enclosed in brackets later, for same reason
as above.
11. The following sentence has been enclosed in brackets later, for same reason as
above.
12. This letter unsigned, this may be because the possible conclusion to the letter is
the postscript dated Feb 15, letter JDH_1_10_51.
Please note that work on this transcript is ongoing. Users are advised to study
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