[[1]]
Dorjiling [Darjeeling]
Jan[uar]y 3d 1850 *1 1849
My dear father,
I wrote you at length yesterday but closed my letter before I got the seeds off. The
latter I had to do up into 5 packets, to get the post to take these, they are directed to
"Sec[retar]y India House; India House London Service[?]" & in the corner "Seeds of
plants only for Royal Gardens Kew". I hope this is all right & that they will reach you
in safety. The remainder are forthwith going to Calcutta [Kolkata]. Of several
Rhododendrons you will find abundance to distribute to Lindley, Henslow, or any
other persons you please -- pray do not forget Courtenay's friend Mr Bellenden Kerr
nor Lord Dalhousie's desire that some should go direct to the Queen with the
intimation *2
[[2]] that they were sent at his (Lord Ds.) request. Hodgson got a map partly ready to
go this mail but it is so very foul that both Thomson & myself think it better to retain it
at present & I will do my best to get one ready for Feb[ruar]y post, but really these
are works of no ordinary labour & I do dislike doing things in an inferior manner to
what I can do them. Crummelin's[?] map is quite wrong as to the courses of the
Lachen & Lachoong & places these wholly on the wrong side of the Mts. Such errors
published by you or me will be copied everywhere & we blamed severely hereafter -for we do know better.
[[3]] I am today working at the Rhododendrons for you & I hope to get them off by the
Feb[ruar]y mail, the drawings[,] descriptions & a set of the specimens. The other
drawings I must put off sending at present as it is absolutely necessary to attend to
the packing & arranging [of] the collections & I want too to spend some days at the
foot of the hills completing my collection of the Sikkim Flora.
Humboldt's "Aspects of Nature" has just arrived here, it appears very inferior in every
respect & full of errors. He references that Hodgson & I have travelled is the trans
Sutledge districts *3. What he quotes me as saying about the snow line is perfectly
correct[?], for Sikkim viz 1500 ft, for the southern most edge of the belt, & 20,000 for
the Thibetan [Tibetan] elevation of the belt, but you must know that Thomson
[[4]] takes a widely different view of the Himal to what ever has been previously &
from the little I have seen of Thibet, I incline to agree with him. These Mts, the Himal,
can in the meridian of Sikkim be only defined by the bed of the Yarrou Tsamper (say 14000 ft)
on the N[orth]., & the plains of India (300ft only) on the S[outh]., all between is Himal
Mts. -- We naturally call the heavily snowed mass, the ridge or axis of the chain -- for
that is the visible prominent feature from the South. But it does not follow that the
snowy portion indicates the true axis, or the although even a few isolated peaks may
rise therefrom & top the world [1 word crossed out illeg.] -- for the snow being
deposited by a southerly wind only falls on the southernmost elevations & is
prevented from reaching the true axis behind. Where the snow deposited equally on
all the Himal we should have the whole land between the parallel
[[5]] of K[anchen]junga & the Yarou covered with perpetual snows & then the axis of
the chain would clearly show itself far behind K[anchen]junga & the latter[?] Mt.
appear rising from a spur of the same. The snow line being 5000 ft higher on the
Thibetan portions of the ranges than on the Sikkim, cannot but deceive anyone as to the
true position of the centre of the chain, i.e. the axis. -I have always have told you that the Sikkim Himal, that is, the snowed Mts., do not
form a continuous snowed chain E[ast] & W[est] but that they are meridinal ridges running
N[orth]. & S[outh] separated from waters that flow southerly between them. I have also
insisted that the near elevation of the ranges between the courses of the Arun &
Yarrou are is much greater than that between the Arun & plains of India, though so
little snowed but I had not Thomson's answer to deduce therefrom the conclusion,
that, our snowy meridinal ridges are mere spurs
[[6]] from the great axis behind. Thomson however has proved it for the N.W. Himal
& so the Sikkim phenomena are very simple to him. Now if you will wait for a decent
chart & not publish these rubbishy things I will lay all this down in black & white, with
blue for the perp[etual] snow & indicate the height of the latter in a clear manner.
3 PM It is just post hour & it is a chance if this catches the steamer from Calcutta.
Brown I understand to have put my name down for the Athenaeum, but if it be not
down I would not press you placing it on the list, I shall not be inclined to afford the
fees. Except you think it very advisable that I should do so.
Your ever affectionate son | Jos D Hooker [signature]
ENDNOTES
1. Correct year inserted vertically, possibly in another hand.
2. JDH has marked this paragraph with two vertical lines in the margin to emphasis
its importance.
3. This sentence is written vertically in the margin between pages 2 and 3.
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