[[1]]
H.M.S. "Erebus" Berkeley Sound[,] East Falkland Isl[an]d.
August 25th 1842.*1
My dear Father
In a letter just finished to my Mother you will find all that I know of our future
movements, as also by what conveyance I despatched my last to England, & that my
long protracted silence has arisen from not having had any opportunity since of
sending home. Our stay here has given me time to investigate as much of the
Botany of this Island as the windy weather & season will permit, & I would fair hope
that little remains which has escaped my notice, especially in the lower orders. Some
of my specimens are very bad & only preserved because they may be known in
England & even should that not be the case they may still add one or two to certain
Nat[ural]. orders whose geographical distribution is an object of great interest to me.
Amongst the Lichens I have had a good field here, some of which, especially the
rupincolous [rupicolous] species are very handsome. The collection to be sent home
contains a great many specimens of every the order found here, except of the Algae,
which here attain gigantic dimensions & of which I wish to take the entire suite on to
the Cape that Harvey may inspect them. Even of the other orders I retain all uniques
& an excellent set of the others for you, lest any untoward event should prevent their
reaching England, or, after that, their being placed in your hands. My notes too are
rather copious both upon the plants themselves, & on their distribution on the parts
of the Island I have visited. All the plants mentioned in Gaudichaud's list (which
Maria copied for me) have come under my notice except 3 or 4. & As well as many
other which D'Urville may have found, his list, quoted by D.C. [DeCandolle] is not
known to me. Mosses are now coming into fruit & only now; & though I have found
as many species as I could expect, so many are barren, especially of the Pleurocarpi
that I fear little use can be made of them. Of Andreaea there are 2 ? species.
Sphangnum one (or 3 if you call them so). Grimmia 2 in fr[ui]t. Trichostoma our hoary
friend barren & very scarce. Orthotrichum 1 like the Kerg [Kerguelen's] Land
maritime sp. -- Didymodon 2 or 3. Dicranum 2. -- Camylopus 1. -- Tortula 2. Bryaea 3
in fr[ui]t. -- Fumaria 1 -- Bartramia 2 in fr[ui]t. Polystrichum 2 barren -- Several
Hynpna[ceae] & 2 Hookeriae all barren. About 10 Jungermmaniae, 2 Marchant[ia]. &
a Riccia. Of Lichens about 30 amongst which is the Usnea melaxantha quite
different from the yellow Kerguelens Land Usnea, larger & more handsome. Also
some beautiful Stictae, Roecellae, several Cladoniae which I feel sure will please
you. My Seaweeds are not examined but I expect there are about 50 species,
amongst which are three of Macrocystis & several Laminariae which here take the
place of Sargassa [Sargassum] in milder climates. some beautiful Florideae & the
Ballia one of the commonest plants here attains a large size. I do not doubt that is
the Sphacellaria callitricha Ag.[.] Harvey is wrong in supposing that the green
specimens are decayed, the colour varies even in the youngest specimens, nor do I
think that the season at all affects the plant, at least not here or,
[[2]] Marine confervoid plants are abundant many of the Bays being covered with an
odious slime formed by one or two species, there are also several fresh water
species. Fungi are scarce -- on our first arrival two large Agarici & a yellow Helvella ?
were so common that I neglected to gather them after the first cold weather they all
vanished. I have however left a bottle of spirits for Lyall to collect them as the spring
sets in -- others are too small[.] Agarici -- a Lycoperdon & Peziza -- My ferns are two
Lycopodia, 2 Stegania, the Hymenoph. caespitosum, the smallest fern I ever saw, a
beautiful new Aspidium very rare found last week in the "stream of stones"
mentioned by Darwin & a Gleichenia given me by the Ass[istant] Surgeon but never
seen alive. -Now that I think of it, a subscription list has been just put into my hands, for a piece
of plate for Sir Wm Burnett, to which, as all naval medical officers do, I must
subscribe, should it not be too late; would you be kind enough to ask Dr Richardson
how much it w[oul]d be advisable for me to give & to pay the same out of the
enclosed bill? remembering that as my pay is double the sum should be accordingly
large. It was the "Carysfort" that first told us of the subscription so that should it be
too late it is no fault of mine, no vessel having sailed since her arrival, for England, or
anywhere else, except herself for the W[est] . coast of S[outh]. Am[erica].. --In about
a week we sail for the neighbourhood of Cape Horn, to St Martin's cove if we can
fetch it, but in such latitude in such a season & with such ships it is very probable
that we may have to bear up for any Port in Tierra del Fuego, perhaps in Staten
Island [Isla de los Estados]. Strong westerly winds prevailing all the year round & the
equinoxial gales coming on. We fear a very long passage under these circumstances
& perhaps an uncomfortable one, though we no know, from long experience that no
sea can hurt such vessels as ours, which rise like tubs on the water & tumble about
in the waves. I already begin to think of the Fagi & was only this morning looking
over your monograph in the charming journal. Webster in his account of Capt[ain]
Fosters voyage gives some account of the two Fugian species in his appendix, but
according to the accounts of Capt[ain] King & yourself he makes a sad bungle,
calling the F[agus]. antarctica the evergreen beech (V.2.p.291), the other he calls the
deciduous beech or Fuegian beech & adds that the leaves are plicate & 3 lobed. In a
few days I shall hope to have settled all this by as well as the 3 doubtful species or
varieties of Mirbel's F. betuloides by collecting specimens at different heights on the
hills. It is however amongst the mosses & other Cryptogam[ia] . that I shall hope for
novelty in the S. extremity of the American continent & Capt[ain] King's account of
the ascent of Kater's peak from St. Martin's cove is very attractive. You will not
wonder that after spending so long a time in the Antarctic regions, I should be most
anxious to complete the Botany of this desolate part of the world, by going even to
the Horn & that any new moss or Lichen from such Latitudes appears of infinitely
more value to me than a new Palm or Rafflesia would to you, nor can you well
conceive my delight at on finding the three curious Halorageous, Portulaceous &
Crassulaceous weeds of Kerguelen's Land at Auckland then Campbells Isl[an]d &
again on the Falklands. 3 curious forms of small natural orders, as strictly Antarctic
as Parrya or Sieversia is Arctic. Amongst the lower orders I find it takes all my eyes
to get up a tolerably complete collection for in such dreary climates where vegetation
itself is scarce I find that every thing in however bad a state must be taken at once &
looked for in fruit or flower afterwards. Indeed I often wonder what can be done with
the barren specimens I am forced to be content with; it was
[[3]] only yesterday that I found a new Polytrichum (the 3rd species) here, rather a
handsome moss with large patent leaves, but then it is barren & was very scarce
where it grew, also a Gyrophora or Umbilicaria of a black colour growing on the hard
quartz rock also likewise barren. Still I hope to find at Cape Horn besides many new
things some of the old ones in a better state; where I most anxiously wish we were,
for I am heartily tired of waiting here longer for letters -- I would now willingly give a
guinea a number for your journal (after p.388 of Vol.1) could I procure them by such
means for my ignorance of the Botanical world is quite lamentable. Most thankful we
ought to be that Vogel & Ansell are safe home from the Niger for your sake
particularly I rejoice at their return. I often think that this expedition has saved me
from joining those steamers, which I should readily have done, & given me health
strength & happiness unintermittedly for now 31/2 years a greater share of these
blessings I could nowhere have enjoyed -- I shall leave behind here to be forwarded
to you 3 2boxes & a cask of specimens. The boxes contain chiefly Birds & shells with
one bundle of plants & some specimens of tree ferns &c from New Zealand - The
cask contains your sets of Auckland & Campbell Isl[an]d plants &c which were put in
nearly two years ago & have not been opened since, the cask is a good
Gov[ernmen]t Rum--puncheon worth taking care of -- The Birds are chiefly New
Zealand & Antarctic with some of the Falklands, of the latter I have now much better
specimens which will please you especially a pair of each of the 3 magnificent
species of geese which frequent this place & some good Hawks. It was very foolish
in me to have brought so few books on Cryptogamic plants having nothing but
Loudon's Encyclop.[edia] & the miserable Sprengel to help me, from knowing
something of the mosses before I can get on with them I examine them very minutely
but with the Algae & Lichens I am sadly puzzled, your parcel to me, when it comes!,
will be a great catch if it is only for the Journal to which Berkeley no doubt still
contributes.-- Gardner always runs in my head, to use a vulgar phrase, nor can I help
hoping that he may be assisting you to arrange the herbarium, or perhaps he is
going on some other travels as soon as he has published his collections, in either he
will be sure to shine, is he still fond of the mosses which seem very much neglected
by English Botanists of late. McLeay had promised to collect for me in New Holland,
& knowing him as we do, when one thinks that hardly a dozen mosses have been
described from that vast country, there can be no bounds to the novelties he may fall
in with. he was quite delighted when I showed him the Sclotheimia Brownii growing
on rocks near his house & the Dawsonia amongst some roots he had brought from
the forests of the interior. He seemed rather cautious about broaching his Quinary
system & I was rather anxious to hear how he thought it would apply to the higher
orders of plants. The circular system no doubt holds amongst the Cryptogamiae[,]
Fries having proved it with regard to Fungi & Berkeley seems to incline the same
way. The sale of Bauer's private drawings is announced in the papers, they were I
suppose far above your means[.] I should much like to have had that group of
flower's (similar to Brown's). Fitch will continue the "Genera filicum" & complete it, I
hope. Do not let the Journal die for want of funds as long as I have a bill to send
home I have no work that pleases me so much -- Fielding of Stoddagy Lodge has left
his collection to the Bot. Soc. Lond. whose brilliant meetings are noticed by 2 lines in
each Athenaeum[.]
[[4]] Sept[embe]r 1st This letter has been progressing by fits & starts though I could
pleasantly employ a whole day in thus talking to you whether you receive as much
pleasure in reading my prosy ineubrations[sic] or no. I have just returned from a long
walk to Uranie Bay where poor Freycient lost his ship. Leaving the ship you go to the
S[outh]. end of the upper extremity of this harbor along a slaty beach overhung by
low cliffs of clay slate covered with the Gunnera, Acaena, Oxalis ennaephylla,
Cardamine glacialis & here & there bushes of Empetrum rubrum & Chiliotrichum
amelloides, Nassauvia gaudichaudii[,] Homoianthus echinulatus & many smaller
plants, some maritime, as a fine Statice, a little Psyllium & 4 or five curious forms of
Umbellif[erae]. as the Bolax forming large overhanging semicircular mounds & the
little Azorella lycopod. & filamentosa. A new Caldasia & a very singular Hydrocotyle?
with pistulae simple linear leaves. The shore is covered with entangled masses of 2
species of Macrocystis & other seaweeds. A beautiful Sticta forms large leafy
patches amongst the grasses of several kinds & the barren rocks are covered with
the L. geographicus[,] a noble Roccella sometimes nearly a foot long & other fine
Lichens which completely whiten them where they are most exposed to the light[.]
The holes & crevices are full of mosses & Jungermanniae[.] A Riccia, 2 Hookeriae, 2
Bartramiae & others. It has been the first fine day we have had for a long time & the
plants are just beginning to spout. The Viola magellanica & Oxalis have just shown
their leaves & the tufts of grass look green at the base especially the fine Hierochloe
sp? whose old leaves just drying in the sun smell delightfully. The poor birds whose
breeding season is just commenced are revelling in the change; the steamer ducks
flock along the water so tame that one may approach within a good yard of them
pluming themselves & uttering their wheezing clack clack presenting a curious
contrast to the restless black backed gull who watches them from overhead &
whenever the poor steamer after a dive emerges with a fine sea animal in his bill this
pirate gull darts down & seizes the morsel before the [1 word crossed through illeg.]
bird has drawn a breath. Little sandpipers are running & chattering along, & every
here & there the beautiful kelp goose with her spotless white gander appear sitting
on a rock & picking choice specimens of algae. A smaller gull with a black head &
beautiful rose coloured breast has the habits of a Tern, perpetually screaming aloft &
suddenly dropping with its wing erect on the water with a little splash to fish up some
incautious shrimp.-- Leaving the beach the upland grounds are low & flat intersected
by little valleys & slow streams running deep in the boggy earth, the Arundo
alopecurus forming an excellent pasturage for cattle covers all the bays & the Bolax
forms large hassocks on the drier [tracts]; here one has constant companions in the
Caracara Hawks (Polyboreus) which follow you everywhere, perching close by on
the ground, frightening poor rabbits out of their forms & narrowly watching all your
motions. Nothing grows so high as the grass but here & there are tufts of the
Empetrum & a little Arbutus with Corniculariae, Conomyces with red Pyxidia &
Cetrariae.
[[5]] The valleys again are full of bushes of the Chiliotrichum, Trichostomum
lanuginosum Sphagnum [Sphagmum] & a few other mosses, every now & then a
snipe gets up or a flock of thrushes or the beautiful red breasted starling ? twittering
& chattering from bush to bush. The upland geese are pairing & though geese they
have after 5 months experience learned to fly away instead of sitting to be shot at.
The long creeks which run up from the bay have their banks covered with slimy
confervoid algae & here the little Teal swim & whistle in flocks & the black & white
oyster catchers keep poking their long red bills into the slime, & more busy than all
the beautiful Chionis scarcely heeding you whilst the low water offers him a feeding
time. The hills are all Quartz & as soon as that formation presents itself, it may be
recognized by the turf containing patches of the Astelia, Caltha appendiculata,
Oreobolus obtusangulus, Gaimarda australis & Myrtus nummularia. The final
Stegania only grows near quartz rocks which though so dry & hard are rendered
perfectly beautiful by the Usnea melaxantha forming a mimic forest & other
foliaceous & crustaceous Lichens. Uranie bay is formed of sand with sand hills at the
back like Yarmouth downs amongst which a fine grass grows with two beautiful
Senecios. Large patches of a Tortula like ruralis form gold (if you remember that one
on the Yarmouth sand hills)[.] Amongst these hills Freycient encamped his crew of
which I have made the enclosed sketch copied from one done by one of the crew, an
Englishman, who gave it to the Governor. (See Weddell's voyage). The sand is pure
& snow white on which the sea appears of a brilliant blue. Large beds of kelp cover
the rocks outside & have hidden the Uranie of which no visible sign remains but
some copper & a few iron water casks on the beach. At the back of the sand hills are
some pools of water in which I gathered you Gaudichard's Limosella & Myriophyllum
but could find no Azolla which I have not ceased looking for since arriving here. On
the beach are huge trunks of seaweed perhaps the D'Urvillea[,] branching like a tree
sometimes a foot in diameter & often 12 & 14 long, a horizontal section of the stem
presents oval concentric rings perhaps answering to successive periods of growth
these rings seem formed of cells containing a viscid fluid[,] the trunks in drying shrink
excessively & become harder than horn. It is singular that in the Usnea perhaps the
largest form amongst Lichens there is a more striking analogy to exogenous
vegetation, so remarkable that I think it must be noticed somewhere -- a horizontal
section of its stem or larger branches shows a distinct cortical layer of a yellow color
& crustaceous consistence attached to an inner corky layer which sends medullary
rays through a hard red horny axis to meet a central corky pith, except that these
layers are all separate forms of cellular tissue they are in every respect analogous to
the Bark wood & pith of a tree. I think that the red horny tissue expands over the
excipulus of the thallus & gives the Peridia. Now that I think of it you may tell Mr
Berkeley that in v.4 p. 292 of the Annals he describes 2 Fungi as having been
brought home by Darwin who found them under timber on the Falklands. Now there
is no timber here but
[[6]] what is imported & that is far too scarce to allow Fungi to sprout on it so that
there may be some mistake. A few nights ago I landed at the Governors & put into
the charge of his Secretary Mr Robinson 3 cases & a cask for you to be sent home
by the first opportunity[,] they are all directed to you at the R[oya]l. Gardens, Kew nr.
London. The smaller cases contains amongst my own birds 5 or 6 of Oakeley's
which you will please to let alone till we get home. One of the large cases is also full
of birds with one [?] the other contains one bundle New Zealand plants & one N.Z.
mosses, besides some shells for Maria, an N.Z. skull, some kaurigum, & the picture
of a gale of wind in the Pack done by Davis & sent with his comp[liment]s. it is by far
the best he has done & I can vouch for its accuracy. Your thanking him with two lines
by your own hand would please both him & me very much. There are also some
veneering from the '"Terror" rudder to frame it with should you think it worth the
while. The cask contains one parcel Auck[land] Isld. plants, one Auek[?] Campbell
Isld. Phenog. & Musci -- one V.D.L. gum trees[,] 2 boxes shells for Maria -- one
Falkland Isld Lichens to shew[sic] you the Usnea, specimens of the large
Lycopodium from Campbell's Isld. & a few very bad birds collected long ago. I do not
wish too much being said about my sending any quantity of Birds home nor of
Davis's picture, except to friends, for the order runs "all charts, drawings collections
to be delivered up" &c &c. I have still on board for you one very large brown paper
bundle of N.Z. duplicates Phenogam & 4 small Crypt. & Phenog; one good bundle of
Auckl[an]d Isld Phenog. & one Crypt. smaller, one V.D.L. Cryptog & Orchid, one
Sydney plants, one small Campbell's Isld Cryptog. besides a separate duplicate set
of the whole & all the Falkl[and]. Isld plants. I shall leave a letter to go by the vessel
which will take the specimens directed to you & which Robinson will kindly fill up with
the ships name &c so that you may know where to send for them. So long a time has
elapsed without any opportunity of sending letters having occurred, that I shall leave
this letter to go by any vessel even to the W[est]. coast of S[outh]. America, for there
is no use in leaving it in leaving it in such a man--trap as the Falklands for a passage home.
In this I also enclose some seed of the Tussac for you to plant in a moist soil, it is
now growing from seed in the Gov[ernmen]t. Garden planted in drills like turnips! It
may not however do except near the sea & if you have an opportunity of sending any
to Mr Edmonstone in Shetland it would be a grand thing to introduce there.-- Along
with this letter others will go to Mr Lyell & Mr Ward, McLeay at Sydney, & Dayman in
V.D.L.[.] I must also write to Gunn & Colenso. You must give my love to all at home
of whom there are to receive it, I am surely very ignorant. If we stay here much
longer (this is Sept[em]b[e]r 5th) I shall write you another letter, but I think we shall
sail tomorrow or the day after in which case you will hear no more at present[.]
From your most affectionate son | Joseph Dalton Hooker[signature]
Sir Wm J. Hooker
Rl. Gardens Kew
nr London
ENDNOTES
1. Annotated in another hand as "(recd. Sat Feb 11 1843)"
Please note that work on this transcript is ongoing. Users are advised to study
electronic image(s) of this document where possible.