[[1]]
H.M.S Erebus Berkley Sound Falkland Isl[an]ds
December 6th ..1842.
My dear Mother [Lady Maria Hooker],
Letters written a week ago to my father will have apprized you of our safe return from
the Horn & the delight with which I received your very long & most kind epistles I
shall therefore only thank you again for them as also for the locket with poor Willy's*1
hair & the many other little tokens of affectionate regard all of which are very
delightful to receive.-- The cask with carrots & fruit is indeed inestimable for nothing
could be better thought of or better in kind. They are indeed now almost the only
comforts of the mess as our Rio [de Janeiro] stock consisted of necessaries not
luxuries: not a bottle was broken or otherwise injured & as we tried them all! may say
they were in perfect preservation both in firmness & flavour. I gave some in your &
my Father's name to Capt. Ross & the mates mess of the "Terror" for which they
send their kind thanks & compliments. You will be glad to hear that we do not
despair of getting home next year although we have no right to expect it or much
less to count on it. I shall be home all in good time & I much fear you make yourself
uncomfortable on my account far more than there is any occasion for -- surrounded
as you are by every other comfort you must wait patiently & not fret for my situation
is very good & I am particularly comfortably situated here with full license to follow
the beat of my own inclination & nothing to complain of for myself although I indulge
my father with a good growl now & then about the Expedition you must also
remember that the longer the Expedition is out the
[[2]] better it is for me as long as my time is well employed & there is little chance of
want of work in this ship if I could only do it better. I often think of the nice house &
garden of which it is easy to form a good idea from the excellent sketches Fitch has
done & indeed until they arrived for nearly 1/2 year I continued to wonder & wonder
what sort of a spot you inhabited -- Being near Aunt Palgrave is also a great comfort
to you & so is a country life which you always liked so much better than one in town.
After all I am sorry to leave Glasgow not so much for that I liked the place or its
inhabitants but the near neighbourhood of the Highlands will be a great desideratum.
The advantages of the present situation are immense in every way & Glasgow had
none of them. The garden must be delightful & very little expense I should hope as
Kew will supply all the necessaries -- Unfortunately we have no map of the shire
here so that I could not lay my finger on the spot were I to see one until I work out its
Lat[itude]. & long[itude]. by your letters. I intended long ere this to have written again
to Mr Arnott to condole with him on the loss of the chair which he & he only received.
Balfour is an old friend of mine & was a most kind one -- I remember once sleeping
under the same blanket with him on the ground in Isla during a bitter cold night when
all the poor fellows anxiety was to keep me warm & I had to pretend to go to sleep
before he ever attempted it. So I must write to him too & stir him up to study Botany
now & drop medicine. The Ass[istan]t. Surgeon of the Carysfort told me that the
College was quite at a stand still & that the new appointments &c had given general
dissatisfaction. London is certainly getting far ahead of it & Edinburgh always was
[[3]] Little Bessy*2 might have written & told me how all my friends were there, but
she only mentions about the Prestons whom I remember nothing about whatever.
Nor does anyone mention Dr. Graham of Edinb[urgh]. to whom I must write by this
budget. I am very sorry to hear of Gr[an]d[fathe]r Turner's*3 accident which I hope he
will have recovered from before this reaches you I owe your Mother a letter sadly as
also old Dawson but really writing so much is no joke & I do not like to write short
letters to go so far. Plenty of plants went home the other day by the Governor
Hackett[?] under the best auspices for their safety during this voyage & as they will
go to Kew you can get some of the young beech trees, they were all gathered &
planted by myself as I did not like to trust any one else. Should you care for any plant
them in a damp shaded spot out of both wind & sun for though they come from a
cold Country they are formed in very sheltered damp valleys where the temperature
is very agreeable -- the little crumpled leafed tree is much the prettiest & very
fragrant in Spring when the buds are bursting. My Father's books seem getting on
well & I like all I see of them extremely the British Flora always pays & the more
editions the better I think you must know it by heart by this time. I do not know who
will be foolish enough to pay me for my lucubrations & shall indeed be too glad to get
the bare expenses covered, as to making money that will be out of the question. I
wish you would not lay aside the few pounds took home for me, for I shall not want it,
if I can only get enough to keep me respectably I shall be content to live from
[[4]] hand to mouth & I would not give a penny for a fortune which is sure to prove a
curse to most men & a breeder of idleness. However it is all very well to talk so when
there is no chance of getting one -- but I should much prefer that the bills were used
indeed had I not thought they would be I should have put them into a V[an].
D[iemen's]. L[and]. bank or invested it there in land & sheep -- however it is all the
same to me. They have promised me a cat from the 'Terror' to be born in the ice next
cruize[sic] which it if turns up worth having I shall send home from the Cape of Good
Hope as they are not allowed in this ship.
From the date of this (Dec. 7th) you will see see[sic] that our next cruize will be a
very short one indeed for as we must leave the ice by a certain time every day here
is one gained. The latest yarn is that we go towards the S[outh]. Georgias looking on
our way for Aurora Isl[an]ds long considered doubtful (see Weddell) but which the
mate of a whaler now in this port saw several times -- from thence I hope to S.
Georgia & then down to try Weddel's track. Somehow I do not think we shall spend
much time trying to get South. If however we do take the pack ice I hope we shall get
through it & not stop until land or barrier bring us up -- all we care about is dark
nights amongst a sea full of Bergs for it blows so much that there is always a heavy
sea running & our course to the Cape after leaving the pack ice will be far out of the
way of any thing of the kind & very different from 90 degrees we have had to run
[[5]] down last year. -- My Father sent me a most charming circumpolar chart which
Davis is going to have ready with our next summers track to go home at once from
the Cape of Good Hope & we shall follow it slowly for I expect we shall have a
thorough warming in the Tropics ere we reach England especially in Rio harbor --
where we go from the Cape -- I shall now give you a little account of our cruize to
Cape Horn & back again which has been a very pleasant episode in our voyage, the
botany lists are for my Father -- I hope he will have received the collections talis
qualis *4 long ere this arrives.
Sept[embe]r 9th we weighed & made sail down the sound as I was writing a letter to
Bessy -- on the following day we were greeted as we expected by a stout S.W. gale
which blew almost without interruption until the 16th during all of which time we were
hove to & battened down most delightful as you may suppose after 4 months in
harbour -- On the 16th we were 80 miles to leeward of the Falklands! when after a
short calm Easterly wind sprung up & as the sea went down we ran on rapidly to the
Horn. Fair winds took us on to the land; on 19th we made it early in the morning
consisting of ranges of snowy peaks & soon after saw the far famed Horn. The day
was beautiful & so we passed in the afternoon right under the cliff which is quite a
fine one very steep & precipitous to the southward[.] Jagged & peaked at the top
covered with very stunted brush wood of the crumpled or deciduous leaved bush
which was brown as the
[[6]] leaves were not expanded yet. The cliff is of a black colour & about 600 ft high
with plenty of albatross[,] cape pigeons & other sea birds wheeling about it indeed we
were so close we would see them sitting on the face of it. A little cairn of stones
raised by the officers of the Beagle is on the top of all -- After rounding (or doubling
the Cape) the Bay of St. Francis opens out & the view is very fine. This bay was
supposed to be in Hermite Isl[an]d until that Isl[an]d was found to be made up of
many enclosing this sheet of water. Horn Isl[an]d is the most West[war]d & as its
name owns boasts of the Cape. Hermite is the Eastern most & Cape Spencer its
most Southern point is very similar to & abreast of Cape Horn (some 2 or 3 miles
farther north). In the centre is a very singular steep mass of rock called Hall Isl[an]d - after the gallant Capt. (who persecutes poor midshipmen) to the North Herschell &
Wollaston's Isl[an]ds full of craggy peaks black below & covered with snow above
very dismal to behold Mt Kendal amongst the rest. Chanticleer Isl[an]d is a small one
off the mouth of St. Martin's Cove & named after Foster's ship -- Hermite Isl[an]d is
however the finest of all from Cape Spenser[sic] a huge rounded Mt far higher than
the Horn to Kater's Peak a beautiful cove with a dazzling mantle of snow & Mt Foster
on the N[orth]. end whose top is something like a church organ; the shores are very
steep covered on this the sheltered side down to the water's edge & up to 1000 ft
with the dark green of the Evergreen beech except where precipices
[[7]] occur of which there are plenty. Now these hills are so abrupt that the vegetation
does not crawl up & gradually loose itself as it ascends but a long straight horizontal
line runs along the side from N. to S. met by the Snow line & this feature is very
singular -- we beat up the harbor Bay & at night anchored in very deep water under a
steep precipice off the mouth of the cove. When it came on dark it was a very
curious place for we were under high black looking mountains rising at once from the
water & we could just see their white tops glimmering through the darkness, when
the moon got up the view was beautiful & a more extraordinary anchorage for
wildness & sublimity we never lay at. In the morning the quietness of the spot & the
green woods which we had not cast eyes upon for 12 good months was most
refreshing. The little cove was foreshortened lying amongst hills so high all round
that one could hardly suppose it would afford shelter which it did however when we
were washed about 1 1/3 mile up towards its head opposite a few wigwams of the
natives. The Isl[an]d is so narrow that we could always hear the hollow roar of the
surf on its weather shores & after a hard gale which were common there would be a
slight swell in the cove whose beaches were so steep as sometimes to prevent
landing -- all along the N. side of the Bay the Mts are quite precipitous with a great
deal of snow on their ridges. On the south side they rise at an angle of 45 degrees
up from the water with a few
[[8]] cliffs here & there & so straight that though the cove is very narrow the top of
Kater's peak 1700 ft high is seen from the ships when in the centre -- The head of
the cove runs up in a broad densely wooded valley to another ridge of hills which
completes the amphitheatre of mountains none of whose tops are more than a mile
from the head of the bay & all above 1000 ft high a few saddles are only 2 or 300 ft.
lower. The place is thus open only to the East where Chanticleer Isl[an]ds shuts it up
& Herschel beyond that again. Altogether the place reminded me very much of the
Trossachs or the head of Loch Long contracted. The foliage being much like that of
the Birch & the steep mountain torrents keeping up a continual roar which often put
me in mind of many a night spent in the Highlands nothing is so soothing as the
sound of rushing water & it was very delightful to be at night in bed with the door &
hatch open & hear the little cataracts roaring, however I soon found sleep much
more delightful & forgot the romance, -- finally its effects were quite mesmeric (is that
the new name?) -- The weather for the first few days was most beautiful & we began
to think the Horn a sadly abused & traduced place spring came on rapidly the
Berberry flowered with bright golden blossoms, the tufts of liriodendrons on the
beaches grow quite brilliant & the crumply leaved beech burst at every twig emitting
a delicious resinous smell -- nature was evidently taking every advantage of the fine
days & I began to think that seed time &
[[9]] harvest would all be over together in a month & could not conceive what the
poor plants were to have to do during all the summer if the spring was so fine -- My
Father's class song of Spring, all of which I remember is " The larch hangs all its
tassels forth" was nothing to this. I certainly never saw anything like the sudden
bound vegetation took in 10 or 12 days we arrived in winter & it was summer already
-- a few days more however changed the face of nature & after all the Snow had
disappeared 2 or 3 hours covered every thing with a white mantle & this continued
very changeable during our whole stay -- clouds & fogs, rain & snow justified all
[Charles] Darwin's accurate descriptions of a dreary Fuegian summer. Indeed all
Darwin's remarks are so true & so graphic wherever we go that Mr Lyell's kind
present is not only indispensible but a delightful companion & guider. The westerly
winds which prevail seldom affect the waters of the cove but where they are strong &
gales set in with drifting clouds & snow & rain the whole land appears savage to a
degree. The force of the wind & its effects are not to be compared to Kerguelen's
Land where the steady torrent of wind came rushing down in one impetuous stream
through the valley at the head of Xmas harbour here they dart down from the narrow
gorges of the mountains deflected from this course & burst on the ship with a clap
like thunder tear the water up & are gone in an instant; two will sometimes meet from
opposite directions & impact a few yards off
[[10]] whisk up a cloud of spray & continue struggling down the cove until perhaps
they split & run away in two disavicating divaric *5 lines of foam as far as the eye can
trace them. The gusts were in no instance stronger than at Kerguelens & from their
short duration do not bring a strain on the cables or cause us to drift from our
moorings but from their suddenness they were more remarkable -- it was very
interesting to walk the deck with a hat tied on & watch these freaks of Aeolus*6 or to
see a squall or williewaw as they are called strike the Terror[,] keel her over for a
minute & rush on till it met the steady gale outside, of which we felt nothing -- on the
hills their effects were also very remarkable especially high up near the gorges
where the trees which met it in its first burst would be all shattered & lay in every
direction for an acre perhaps, these there too are sturdy tough stag headed little
obstinate trees whose splintered trunks though only a few inches (8-14) in diameter,
show that their mettle is good. The poor Fuegians of course attracted our attention
before anything else & surely they are the most degraded savages that I ever set
eyes upon, they are considered as the lowest in the stage of civilisation of all nations
under the sun, the Tasmanians now banished that Island alone accepted -- They
inhabit various scattered parts of the coast in separate tribes said to be at war with
one another. These we saw amount to be about 20 & are said to be confined to
Hermite Isl[an]d. They have wigwams made of nothing but a few branches arranged
in the form of a beehive in the wood close to the
[[11]] sea -- there are two or three of these in almost every bay of the [Isl[an]ds. &
they wander either across the hills or in their canos[sic] from one to another. These
canos are the most useful articles they possess though very clumsily made of the
bark of trees sewn together over a frame work the bottom is plastered with white clay
of which a supply is always kept on board to stop a leak -- they take a great deal of
care of these boats & whenever they hawl[sic] them up which is the womens['] duty
they make a sort of road of smooth pebbles up the beach & then cut quantities of
seaweed over which they drag the boat up high & dry. Little baskets made up of
rushes woven together & a drinking cup cut out of the root of a Laminaria are their
only domestic utensils, wood ashes & clay used as a pigment & a few shells strung
on seal sinew is their only ornament, whilst their only weapons are a long sling & a
very long spear of wood with a bone head so fitted on to the shaft that on striking a
seal or penguin the shaft falls out & remains attached to the head by a piece of
sinew & this encumbers the animal by floating. These Fuegians wear no clothing
whatever either in winter or summer except such as are given them by us more
apparently for ornament than comfort. The men do little or nothing except seal or
such like comes in their way whilst the women are employed collecting limpets &
muscles which eaten raw or half cooked & form the largest proportion of their food,
to do this the poor things have to go
[[12]] every day often up to their middles in water snowing heavily at times & with a
young child slung to their backs. Their manners are little above the brutes, filthy &
squalid to a degree & they will eat anything but salt meat that we offered them. They
are all great thieves & excellent imitators both of language & action though they have
never improved themselves permanently from their intercourse with Europeans.
Their language is a most horrible guttural concatenation of sounds & unlike the
N[ew]. Zealanders whose tongue is harmonious & beautiful to the ear they as I said
before imitate a sentence of any language readily -- whilst few of the N. Zealanders
can pronounce 1/3 of the English words. -- Our walks were confined to the Island &
there was not much of general interest to attract attention. Beginning a walk was the
worst part as one must tear through the dense woods & force a passage up the hills
-- the ridges are generally bare of wood & easily walked over to some distance but
whenever the valley curves wood is sure to be packed into it. Of mosses lichens etc.
there are a profusion & the collecting [of] them kept me constantly at work. Above
the wood however the rocks are very bare from the frequent heavy snow storms
which often over took us on the hills & made the walk back very unpleasant the wind
clogging[?] it in on our persons. Nothing however but personal weakness or too
sudden a change could have made Sir J. Banks feel their effects so much for we
though nothing of it & were it necessary even without a fire a shelter might
[[13]] be made which with the warmth of 2 or 4 persons close together might have
defied death by cold. We met with several of Sir Joseph's plants & many of poor old
Menzies['] of which my Father has will ere this will reach you have received
specimens. Unfortunately there was no game but a very few large quail like grouse &
a woodcock, a few hawks & geese[,] steamer ducks[,] cormorants & other sea birds;
about a dozen species of shells & as many insects. Botany is certainly the richest
field there -- & a few of the plants are very pretty. I have made a few sketches of the
most remarkable scenes about the cove & amongst others one of the same as
Kendal took & which is published in Webster's account of Foster's voyage but have
not compared them yet his is considered very inaccurate & that is why I took the
same. -- On one occasion I visited Cape Spencer the most Southern part of the
coast Isl[an]d. & as I mentioned above just abreast of the Horn, & took away some
specimens of the rocks & plants just to talk about; its top about 600 ft. high is
covered with a beautiful Lichen which my Father knows is the Usnea sphacelata. -On the 6th of November (or thereabouts) we left St. Martin's Cove & after a rather long
passage considering that Westerly winds should have prevailed, but did not when
they were wanted we arrived here on the 13th & before anchoring had the great
pleasure of receiving your kind letters & presents. The little haul containing the pin
studs & the Lockets came quite safe & I was the first to open it after you had put it up
thinking of me in Jersey & after it had gone round the world & out here
[[14]] after me. The pin is a very nice one but the studs are the only things I have
worn more than once. I did wear the pin once for your sake & my sisters. I wanted
such studs sadly -- Poor Willy's hair I shall attach to the guard chain which I always
wear with my watch (when I put it on) & so it will be indeed be a chain of dear
associations. Except to assure you of my love & anxiety to get home & see you all
again I have little more to add. Letter writing takes me always a long time & I have let
it interfere sadly with my pursuits. Not that I grudge you the time dear Mother but we
almost now expect to be home & enjoy viva voce intercourse in less than 5 months
at any rate after this 4 months cruise to the Ice we shall be homeward bound after a
fashion. I am very glad to hear that the household affairs are so comfortably settled
& you must not fret & bother too much because I cannot be home at once to enjoy
them. You can not think me much of a sailor & Briton to suppose I am likely to growl
at the insipid society & dull climate of Britain or to wish to travel more to seek such
advantages of a better kind. I hope I have a far higher motive for travelling than that,
though I have no idea of spending so long a time from home as this has been there
are parts of the world I intend visiting as soon as my funds will allow Germany &
America for instance -- However that is looking a long way hence & some many
months after my return. I am very glad that Betsey has followed you to Kew for I
know the
[[15]] full trust & confidence you always placed in her. I nearly forgot what I have
often thought of asking you, whether you could not send something to Aunt
Vavasour? Without mentioning my name of course, but to put whatever you think
proper with some larger gifts of her other friends -- If it were possible to do it without
giving offence I should like you to give £10 or £20 in that way, or more if you think it
proper, & will not use the money I send home, which however you had much better
do. Do it if you possibly can. I intend every day to write to Gurney*7 but I have a great
aversion to send notes so for he was a most kind friend to me & none wished [me
well more heartily than Gurney does, it is a very delightful thing to think that he is
giving every satisfaction to his employers & friends at home.
Dec[embe]r. 15th. I must close this tonight as the letter bag is sewed up early
tomorrow morning & I have nothing more to say[.]
Give my love to all & believe me | Ever your most affectionate son | Jos. D.
Hooker.[signature]
I trust you will stop this letter before you read it a 2nd time. I really cannot now.
ENDNOTES
1. William Dawson Hooker (1816 -- 1840). Joseph Hooker's older brother, he was
also a doctor and naturalist. He went to Jamaica in the interests of his health but
soon died there of yellow fever. He was married to Isabella Whitelaw Smith who had
their child, Willielma Dawson Hooker, after William's death.
2. Elizabeth 'Bessy' Evans-Lombe née Hooker (1820--1898). Joseph Hooker's sister.
3. Dawson Turner (1775--1885). Joseph Hooker's maternal grandfather. Banker,
botanist and antiquarian. Author of a number of books on botany he later changed
his focus to antiquities and collaborated with the artist John Sell Cotman on the book
Architectural Antiquities of Normandy (1822).
4. Latin phrase meaning 'such as it is'.
5. An annotation of 'divaric' has been added above the misspelled word
'disavicating'.
6. Aeolus was ruler of the winds in Greek mythology.
7. Gurney Turner (1813--1848). Third son of Dawson Turner, brother of Maria
Hooker and Elizabeth Palgrave (both nee Turner), uncle of Joseph Dalton Hooker.
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