Himalayan Journals — Complete: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.Hooker, Joseph Dalton
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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
For the information of future travellers, I may state that the total
expense of my Indian journey, including outfit, three years and a half
travelling, and the sending of my collections to Calcutta, was under
£2000 (of which £1200 were defrayed by government), but would have come
to much more, had I not enjoyed the great advantages I have detailed.
This sum does not include the purchase of books and instruments, with
which I supplied myself, and which cost about £200, nor the freight of
the collections to England, which was paid by Government. Owing to the
kind services of Mr. J. C. Melvill, Secretary of the India House, many
small parcels of seeds, etc., were conveyed to England, free of cost;
and I have to record my great obligations and sincere thanks to the
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, for conveying,
without charge, all small parcels of books, instruments and specimens,
addressed to or by myself.
It remains to say something of the illustrations of this work. The maps
are from surveys of my own, made chiefly with my own instruments, but
partly with some valuable ones for the use of which I am indebted to my
friend Captain H. Thuillier, Deputy Surveyor-General of India, who
placed at my disposal the resources of the magnificent establishment
under his control, and to whose innumerable good offices I am very
greatly beholden.
The landscapes, etc. have been prepared chiefly from my own drawings,
and will, I hope, be found to be tolerably faithful representations of
the scenes. I have always endeavoured to overcome that tendency to
exaggerate heights, and increase the angle of slopes, which is I
believe the besetting sin, not of amateurs only, but of our most
accomplished artists. As, however, I did not use instruments in
projecting the outlines, I do not pretend to have wholly avoided this
snare; nor, I regret to say; has the lithographer, in all cases, been
content to abide by his copy. My drawings will be considered tame
compared with most mountain landscapes, though the subjects comprise
some of the grandest scenes in nature. Considering how conventional the
treatment of such subjects is, and how unanimous artists seem to be as
to the propriety of exaggerating those features which should
predominate in the landscape, it may fairly be doubted whether the
total effect of steepness and elevation, especially in a mountain view,
can, on a small scale, be conveyed by a strict adherence to truth. I
need hardly add, that if such is attainable, it is only by those who
have a power of colouring that few pretend to. In the list of plates
and woodcuts I have mentioned the obligations I am under to several
friends for the use of drawings, etc.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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