*1
Darjeeling, Feb. 1 1849
My dear mother
I have just finished two long letters to my father & have got plenty to say to him; but now I write to you, because I think you will like to see your own name on this sheet; though I cannot discuss personal matters so fully as I should desire. Your last account of my dear sister dated Dec 3d-- is most cheering. I hope & prey that the new treatment may prove successful, & I confidently expect it will; for it falls in with my own opinion of her case. I will thank you to say this, with my kind love, to dear Elizabeth.
The news of the fearful battle in the N[orth]. West has just reached us but with no particulars of the fighting, nor List of the Killed & Wounded, I heartily pray that my cousin Gifford may not have been among either; though I hope he was at the battle. I owe a letter to my Aunt & Uncle Palgrave who most kindly wrote to me as did Aunt Jacobson.
The letters, which detail the reasons, inducing Maria’s husband to return to Scotland, are among those (of July and Aug[us]t. Last) which have never reached me. I do hope that Adye’s box of instruments is sent, & overland. This mode of conveyance is far the safest. & no saving of cost can make amends for the delay, trouble, anxiety, & probable breakage which accompany the transmission of such articles to India round the Cape of Good Hope. The knowing ones contrive to get enormous packages over land; & the lack of instruments has already involved me in a great deal of expence[sic].
I am now staying with Mr Müller & am busy in arranging & packing my plants; before I go down to Mr Hodgson at the foot of the mountains where I have ordered Tents & Elephants; Mr Barnes kindly providing the latter & Campbell the former. We have been favoured with what I might call an Angel’s visit, from Mr. Tayler, the Post--Master--General for India, brother to F. Taylor, the Artist. He is a gentlemanly, agreeable & highly accomplished man & a splendid sketcher; & we became friends in a very few hours. Like all the old, highly paid Civil servants in India, Mr T[ayler] is in deep debt, which is a matter of mere moonshine apparently to him &

& generally so to others, in this country. With an income of nearly £3000 a-- year, Mr Taylor is obliged to turn his talents as an artist to account. He has made 6 charming views of Darjeeling & the snowy range, perfectly good as respects the scenery, but not, I think, of high excellence as works of art. For his line is more that of a portrait than a landscape--painter. We have persuaded him to get these sketches lithographed, in color, for sale; & I have engaged to dispose of 6 copies in England. He excels in costumes and characteristic figures; & his pictures of Lepchas &c are quite beautiful. He is making one for me, & proposes that it shall be a large picture, & represent myself and party returning from the Snows; Lepchas, Bhoteas, self, Pony, Yak, Dogs &c. But I fear he may not have time to complete it. He went down today to visit some of his Post--Stations, & after a fortnight’s absence returns to Darjeeling. He is lately come from Cattmandu [Kathmandu], whence he brings a charming Portfolio. Few people are better known in India Than Mr Tayler, & he has taken the likeness of half the residents, who are beggars enough to ask him to do so; for he is a most good--natured fellow. I tell you all the more about him, because I expect we shall become great friends. The station is almost empty, & I have hardly an acquaintance, but Müller and Mr O'shaugnessy.
I have brought from the snows a most grand Bhotea Dog, about which I must write to dear Bessy, & a droll puppy, of a breed which I hope will live in the Plains. The former is a huge & savage creature, but a faithful watch: he does not bite me but has already so served 3 of my servants, chiefly at night. If you know a book called "Youatt on the Dog" & can refer to it, you will find a splendid wood cut of this,--"the Thibet Mastiff." My money is not all expended by, I am glad to say nearly £100, as I believe: And I have paid all the expenses of my journey & purchased many things for the museum. My Nepal & Sikkim collections look extremely well; & 3 boxes of seeds are now about to go to England. I have ordered a boat, to convey them, from the foot of the Hills. There are about 100 large bundles of dried plants, & a great store of sundries for the museum, which I am sure will gratify my father.

Stocks has not answered (possibly he has not received) my letter. I like his papers in the London Journal of Botany very much. There is a very large collection of mosses and other Cryptogamia, all mixed together, except the Fungi, which are taken out. Please to send the whole, to Wilson, who will separate the mosses, & let him do whatever papa may judge best with them in describing & naming. I shall never have the time to attend to them; & as describing botanists appear to think that a discoverer has little or no claim to the credit of the species, so he is welcome to publish them, with his own names & to his own honor. I care not a rush about the matter. The only thing to which I object is the allowing such plunderers as A. to pick for themselves.
Jordan, Editor of the Literary Gazette, is the ugliest fellow in the trade, but a kind and good natured one, & he speaks well of my letters in his periodical. I have not read these said letters, & I cannot perceive that they quite deserve the slashing they are said to have received in the Athenaeum. Everybody here knows about it. I think however, that perhaps some rather puerile & flippant passages (which I never expected would be published) have been allowed to stand; but when I see the article, which won’t break my heart, anyhow, I shall be a better judge & will tell you more if it be at all sharp & cutting, as I hear, it certainly is not from the pen (which my father expects) of L. He is a fat goose -- "piger, ineptus quam maxime obesus" -- & quite incapable of aught but a heavy essay, such as the slighting one upon the Botanical Magazine. He is also a mere (& a very blunt) tool of M. in all that concerns reviewing -- too good--natured to speak harshly of me; & influenced in what he said of the Botanical Magazine by what he probably considers a sacred duty towards a science,-- of which, & its requisites, he knows literally nothing. Hodgson positively will not send me the Athenaeum which contains the article;-- that paper is, however, generally an excellent judge of merit.
My father’s copy of Griffith’s Palms, was, I think, incomplete. McLelland assured me he was making up a perfect set of all Griffith’s works for him. I like very much the sketch of my report on what McLelland has done & is doing, (as given in the London Journal of Botany) &

shall be anxious to see what is said, with respect to the Calcutta Gardens.
The New Zealand plants had certainly better be put into the Herbarium, numbered & catalogued; as I did with those from Van Dieman’s Land *2, & would have done with the former before my leaving home, but I had not time.
Humboldt’s letter, respecting the school maps of Physical Geography, is most kind; & I will answer it as soon as I have seen Hodgson. I wrote to Col. Sabine, & received a long & kind reply by the return of the mail. He is very anxious that I should take some meteorological observations here; & I have promised to do so, if he will send me the instrument; & if it arrives, when I am too busy or temporarily absent, Mr Müller has kindly promised to take them for me. This latter friend is extremely hospitable & devotedly fond of Science; the only return I can make is by giving him some instruments for which I have written by this mail to Newman, sending my letter through Wheatstone. The Box will come, overland, & if you have anything to send by April Mail remember that Newman will be preparing it, on the arrival of the mail that takes this letter. It will be large. I will thank you to pay Newman out of the £50 from T. & Mr Müller will settle with me for such of the instruments as are not my present to him.
Lobb (a plant--collector for nurserymen) would do extremely well here, but for the difficulty which attends the transmission of articles to Calcutta. The roads are in a shameful condition; & the bankrupt government cannot mend them, -- nor many other matters.
I have exchanged with Dr. Wight, a copy of my Antarctic Flora for one of his Icones. Have the kindness to desire Reeve, who has some of my copies, to send an uncoloured one to Bailliere for Dr. Wight. The Icones are excellent, especially the latter plates; & the book itself is invaluable.
If as I fear is the case, the widow of Williams (of the Geological Survey) is left destitute (she has 6 children), there ought to be a small sum raised for her, by the officers of the geological survey.

I have written to Reeks about it, & requested, that, if this be done, he would apply to you for £10. in my name; for, during the 2 months I spent with poor Williams, he would not allow me to spend a shilling for bread or travelling expenses. Reeks will only set down my name for £2.2. I give the rest under a fictitious signature for neither could some of my brother--officers afford so much, nor are they called upon to give it, by obligation to the deceased.
By this mail I have written to Frances Henslow, & two letters to my father:-- also to Sabine, Wheatstone, Stephan Ward, Mr Phillipps, Reeks, & your good old friend, Mr Lyell. I hope also to address Sir C. Lyell & Mr Darwin.
My essay on the Coal--Fossils looks charmingly; thanks my dear mother, to your scrupulous attention to my wishes, & to the careful correcting of the press. I am extremely pleased with it and much obliged to you.
Feb. 2nd Post hour is come. I am writing to Lyell & Darwin; but their letters cannot go till tomorrow, when I hope they will still catch the steamer from Calcutta. My best love to my father & Bessy, & kind remembrances to other friends and relations.
Your most affectionate son. | Joseph D. Hooker