[[1]]
Churra Poonji [Cherrapunji]
Khassya [Khasi] Mts
June 21./ [18]50
My dear father
We arrived here on the 12th after a very tedious passage from Dacca [Dakha],
(whence I wrote to you by the June mail). The river wound through the grassy jheels
in the most tedious manner, we had scarce an hour of fair wind, & such a plague of
musquitoes[sic] as drove us to bed at sunset every night. The weather we called cool
after the Ganges & Mahanuddy, seldom rising above 98˚ & there was generally a
wind which, foul as it was we welcomed. Since leaving Dacca, to the foot of the hills
we got about 300 plants nothing new or very interesting but (Ceratopteris) Parkeria, the
stomata on whose leaves are very beautiful & curious, the young plants float free.
Also a fine Aeginetia (pedunculata) whose parasitism is not like our Euphrasia's
sundry Scirpi & Cyperi prevailed, with grasses, but
[[2]] the season was greatly too early for these. We left the Soormah at Chattuk[?] a
place you will find on the map, & spent the day with Mr Inglis, brother of our host
here-- from this the Khassya are seen rising in table topped ranges to the N. very
precipitous with roaring cataracts pouring over their scarped flanks, they in no way
resemble the Himal[aya]. As seen from the plains; -- these as I say, rising in mural[?]
form, & the valleys receding in amphitheatres of cliffs, & the tops being long &
tabular, -- the Himal[aya] again rise in ridges, their valleys have sloping (however
steep) sides & the tops are more rugged.
Mr Harry Inglis, a gentleman well known to Wallich, invited me here 2 years ago
when I met him at Gov[ernmen]t house Calcutta [Kolkata], & he sent swift boats &
serv[an]ts to his brother at
[[3]] Chattuc[?] to conduct us up. We left C[hattuc]. at night in 2 little long boats,
holding one of us each & awoke next morning at the Botanically famous Punduah
which is close to the foot of the mts. We spent the day there at a tumble--down
Bungalow, got many new plants in the swamps & brushy river banks.
Here I met all my things from Calcutta which Falconer has despatched, 5 reams of
brown paper, & the box full you sent me, also 12 glorious stopper bottles & spirits of
wine, all too little for our wants, & we have written for more paper, our stock of about
15 reams not being enough for so splendid a country.
Elephants were ready for us at Punduah which with boats took our things on to
Terrya Ghat, where the ascent to Churra commences, there we found coolies
likewise all
[[4]] ready, of which we required 110 to convey all our things up, the 11 miles of 4000
ft ascent to the station. We filled nearly a ream with the plants collected on our walk
from Punduah before breakfast & forthwith commenced the road up. We of course
walked though Inglis had sent us 2 mules for the first 3000 ft, & 2 horses for the last
were ready on the road.
The scenery was splendid far more beautiful than any part of the Himal[aya] & much
more Brazilian in character with groves of Areca Palm fine rocks & a better mixture
of brushwood & large trees than the complete forest of the Sikkim Himal[aya]
presents. The vegetation was quite different, every thing new to us, Rubiaceae,
Apocyn., Asclep & Euphorbiaceae especially abounding. Neither Cedrela, Shorea,
Gardenia nor
[[5]] Bombax, Erythrina, Sterculia, nor Sissoo form the features here, as at the Sikkim
foothills. Still there are plenty of Cucurb[itaceae]. & Amphilidea and Urticae in both
the species constantly differ. Also Calamus[,] Areca & Wallichia, the latter different
sp. -- of the two former some are new, some old.
Mahadeb, the half way home, is at the front of the mts, & thence onward all is
brushwood with groves of trees Pandanus, tree ferns, & a multitude of shrubby
plants chiefly bordering the streams, for the hill sides are grassy & stony.
Phyllanthus, Eurya, Antidesma, Bamboo, Vaccinium, Rubi[aceae], Cleyera,
Viburnum, Crotalaria ?, Camellia, Uvaria, Photinia, Olea, Vernonia, Callicarpa,
Premnia, Helicia, 3 Saurauja, Fig, Acacia stipularis[sic], Symplocos, Sethia, are the
prevailing shrubs forming a copse above which the Pandanus rises in vast quantities
& occasionally the tree ferns -- 2 Eriocaulon, Polygona, grasses & Cyperaceae,
Hypericum, Habenaria, Murdannia, Burmannia, Cyanotus[sic], Haloragis,
[[6]] are the common herbs of this place & season.
From the top of the table land, the views of the broken valleys on either hand are
magnificent, beyond what I had any conception of, they enter from the broad level
plains of India, & are girt with stupendous cliffs all round, over which beautiful
cataracts of all dimensions occur at every short interval. These pour over the top of
the table land through a fringe of brushwood, leap over down the scarped Mt walls
onto a fine forest slope, whence they are seen meandering down to great streams at
the bottom, which wind through forest, 4000 ft below the eye to the Soormah on the
plains. The view of the latter is interminable to the South & South West, South, the
low
[[7]] hills of Tipperah rise on the extreme horizon, & S[outh]. East, the bold surs of
the Khassya, advance on to the vast swamps of Sylhet. The plains now appear &
are, more than half under water, the course of the winding rivers hardly
distinguishable from the great extent of the flooded country &the absence of trees
marking their course direction. This again is a very different view from that of the hot
hazy plains of Purneah, as seen from the Dorjiling [Darjeeling] outer range.
Churra Poonji, the station, is placed on a wood moorland like flat, out of which
conical mounds rise abundantly in some places 80 -- 100 ft high, & in others, the
horizontally stratified sandstone presents broad bare pavements. East is a
magnificent amphitheatre like valley of green green floored, with its cliffs of black rock
1000 ft high & waterfalls. West, a low craggy range of limestone Mts on the table
land
[[8]] where the coal is worked. North are low sweeps of hills like the Campsies, &
south the land dips suddenly over precipices to the plains 4300 ft below. Scattered
Pandani & the wonderful stone henge--like tombs of the natives are the arresting
objects of the view, the former quite out of the places we associate their presence
with; the later singularly in harmony with the moorland scene, whether as recalling
the druidic remains, or the erratic boulders of our own bleak open counties in
England & Scotland they are wild uncouth objects.
Of the weather "most horrible" is the term I believe for all the time between May &
October, we are considered to be singularly fortunate in getting out & to a distance
for 7 days out of 10 -- for the first three it rained a deluge & then
[[9]] the said clearance commenced which is unprecedented in the memory of the
oldest inhabitant. Thick fog & torrents is the prevailing character, the rain fall
equalling often 48 hours, the whole annual English fall, the statements are incredible
& I have set up my rain gauges to see for myself -- it is windy too, which is bad for
me, as the rain gets on my spectacles & stops work;. the damp is of course ruinous.
We are comfortably placed in a bungalow 10 steps from Inglis house, the latter large
& as I[nglis]. is very rich we fare sumptuously -- too much so by far. We have hired a
bungalow for our plants at £4 a month & there keep 6 collectors & 3 good coal fires
burning, it is very hard work for Hoffman & these 6 men to get the plants changed &
papers dried daily. We always put them in & ticket them bottling orchideae, all fruits
[[10]] & such like. We have also 4 collectors constantly out, & keep two carriers who
accompany ourselves with large baskets in our daily excursions. This entails a much
greater expense than I was prepared for, but I had no idea of the richness & variety
of the flora, nor can you ever have of the bulk & weight of tropical plants, which as I
always say, puts the ordinary vasculum hors de combat in an hour. As also your
notions of drying paper. 80 lbs is not a great collection for one day & 1--1 1/2 ream of
paper to put them in (at the very least Tom adds)[.] Compared to the 4500 feet of
Sikkim Himal: to which these Mts botanically answer, the latter is literally a poor
Botanizing country but again we have[?] here no region like the 5--10,000 of Sikkim.
[[11]] Our collections amount up to those put in this morning to 1176 species
collected since leaving Dacca, of which 800 were collected since Punduah -- this
excludes, all the plants collected in these hills which we collected in the plains & a
great mass of un--numbered things out of flower &c. I am safe in saying that 1000
species might be collected within 5 miles of Churra in a week.
We have already found 12 palms viz Calamus 6, Wallichia 1, (there are 2 I am told) - Chamaerops, -- Areca 3. -- Caryota urens -- We expect 20 in all of Bamboos we
have 8, but only one in flower -- All but perhaps 2 are diff[eren]t. from the Sikkim
ones.
Hodgsonia is in fruit & quite a different plant from the Sikkim one, so it is well you
have stopped its premature debut, as the confusion of plants & plates of Roxburghs
& mine [text obscured where letters has been bound into a volume] terrible
[[12]] business -- I have a fine fruit in spirit for you, it is not ribbed & differently
shaped.
I have received your long & most interesting letter of April 18 with all the news about
Aiton's house which likes me well. I do not understand what my mother says about
the condition that the Herb[arium]. is wanted to be thrown open to the public -- that
sounds most unfair, of course I am not prepared to advise, but I firmly believe it
would be losing my only hold on HM Com]missione]rs -- it would be virtually making
the Herb[arium]. over to the Crown, they would have all the good of it in perpetuity. I
could never touch it except with their sanction, or still less make it any claim on my
own establishment, or sell it if driven thereto by any unexpected or unforeseen event
as blindness or
[[13]] permanent ill health. I have written to Courtenay about you giving B. K.
[Bellenden Ker] the Rhod[odendron]s. I have never hinted at your complaints of him.
He C[ourtenay]. wrote me the other day from Simlah [Shimla], neither my Lord nor
Lady are well, & they hate the hills as much as ever.
You have never acknowledged 5 parcels of seeds I sent home on one occasion to
Se[cretar]y. Ind[ia]. House in January (your name & tradein corner) -- & several other
packets sent same way on other occasions) I therein sent a small packet for Ward to
be given him if you thought proper. -- I have sent Rhod[odendron]. Dalhousiae so
often distinctly labelled, (once when also to Lindley) that I think you cannot have got
nearly all my pacquets[sic] of seeds.
Wight is a capital correspondent & has sent me another beautiful number of his
Icones. I do wish that Bentham or Wallich would write a good notice of that work for
the Journal, we have not the remotest conception of the merit of getting up such a
work in India of half the value or half the execution. In Calcutta it would be difficult, in
Madras [Chennai] almost impossible & how he ever carries it on in the Neilgherries
will be a lasting marvel to me. -- pecuniarily he barely covers the outlay. I do
sincerely believe that such perseverance, energy & enthusiasm has not been
matched in India. All this you perhaps cannot realize, but it is true.
Lobb was here & will doubtless send you good dried specimens of many things I am
too late for, for though too early for the flora in general we are too late for the spring
Orchideae. He is a most steady respectable man, but dreadfully conceited & he quite
avoided us in Sikkim, which T[homson]. remarked quite independently -- for
T[homson]. sought his company during my absence in Calcutta. he pooh poohed
Sikkim & has a very poor opinion of Lindley & Wallich ! ! ! he really is dreadfully
conceited -- travellers find strange bed--fellows you know. In his deportment he is
very modest & extremely well behaved. I can get you much
[[14]] better worked articles for museum here than I could in Sikkim & will do so. We start
in a few days for the interior by Surureen see Griffiths wretched notes to Myrong. Try & get
Tassin's lithograph map of Eastern Bengal, 2 large folio published in Calcutta & no
doubt to be had at Wylds or Arrowsmith if not ask where from Mr Melville or your
other Ind[ian]. acquaintances -- you had better get it on a roller -- it is excellent -names large & clear. *1
We are so distracted with work that I have done nothing to drawing geology or any
thing else but plants from morning till night, except one or 2 outline sketches of
scenery. A Captain Cave here sketches beautifully in water colors. Tom is hearty &
works like a horse, he is indefatigable & perpetual motion & so amiable & pleasant. I
have just had a very kind letter from W. Forbes.
Do send me D.C. [De Candolle] after volume X which we should be studying on our
voyage home -- Ever your most aff[ectionate] son Jos D Hooker [signature]
ENDNOTES
1. 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 reads "By
Southampton | To Sir W. J. Hooker | Royal Gardens | Kew | near London"
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