Himalayan Journals — Complete: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc. — John Shaqi
Himalayan Journals — Complete: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.Hooker, Joseph Dalton
History
Himalayan Journals — Complete: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.
Hooker, Joseph Dalton
Himalaya Mountains -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Himalaya Mountains
In all numerical calculations connected with my observations, I
received most essential aid from John Muller, Esq., Accountant of the
Calcutta Mint, and from his brother, Charles Muller, Esq., of Patna,
both ardent amateurs in scientific pursuits, and who employed
themselves in making meteorological observations at Dorjiling, where
they were recruiting constitutions impaired by the performance of
arduous duties in the climate of the plains. I cannot sufficiently
thank these gentlemen for the handsome manner in which they volunteered
me their assistance in these laborious operations. Mr. J. Muller
resided at Dorjiling during eighteen months of my stay in Sikkim, over
the whole of which period his generous zeal in my service never
relaxed; he assisted me in the reduction of many hundreds of my
observations for latitude, time, and elevation, besides adjusting and
rating my instruments; and I can recall no more pleasant days than
those thus spent with these hospitable friends.
Thanks to Dr. Falconer’s indefatigable exertions, such of my
collections as reached Calcutta were forwarded to England in excellent
order; and they were temporarily deposited in Kew Gardens until their
destination should be determined. On my return home, my scientific
friends interested themselves in procuring from the Government such aid
as might enable me to devote the necessary time to the arrangement,
naming, and distributing of my collections, the publication of my
manuscripts, etc. I am in this most deeply indebted to the
disinterested and generous exertions of Mr. L. Horner, Sir Charles
Lyell, Dr. Lindley, Professor E. Forbes, and many others; and most
especially to the Presidents of the Royal Society (the Earl of Rosse),
of the Linnean (Mr. R. Brown), and Geological (Mr. Hopkins), who in
their official capacities memorialized in person the Chief Commissioner
of Woods and Forests on this subject; Sir William Hooker at the same
time bringing it under the notice of the First Lord of the Treasury.
The result was a grant of £400 annually for three years.
Dr. T. Thomson joined me in Dorjiling in the end of 1849, after the
completion of his arduous journeys in the North-West Himalaya and
Tibet, and we spent the year 1850 in travelling and collecting,
returning to England together in 1851. Having obtained permission from
the Indian Government to distribute his botanical collections, which
equal my own in extent and value, we were advised by all our botanical
friends to incorporate, and thus to distribute them. The whole
constitute an Herbarium of from 6000 to 7000 species of Indian plants,
including an immense number of duplicates; and it is now in process of
being arranged and named, by Dr. Thomson and myself, preparatory to its
distribution amongst sixty of the principal public and private herbaria
in Europe, India, and the United States of America.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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