REVIEWS. 59 



visited, and that in the first king's ship which has touched there since 

 Cook's voyage, and while pursuing the track of the illustrious navi- 

 gator in south-polar discovery ; and that, at a later period, he was nearly 

 the first European who has approached Chumulari since Turner's embassy. 

 We are not surprised at the influence that these works exerted on the 

 mind of Dr. Hooker; as, to the mind of every original thinker, they appeal 

 with a force and energy which the ordinary run of modern travels are in- 

 capable of. 



Having thus very briefly sketched our author's prospects, we will pro- 

 ceed a short way in his company, allowing him to state his observations as 

 much as possible in his own words. 



On the 11th of November, 1847, the Moozufer, with our author on 

 board, left England, and after a voyage of two months, was steaming 

 among the low, swampy islands of the Sunderbunds. Here the large fruits 

 of the Nipa fruticans appear to have excited most interest, as they were 

 thrown up by the paddles of the steamer. They are the product of a low, 

 stemless palm, which grows in the tidal waters of the Indian ocean, and 

 bears a large head of nuts ; which are interesting to the geologist from the 

 nuts of a similar plant abounding in the tertiary formations at the mouth 

 of the Thames, and having floated about there in as great profusion till 

 buried in the silt and mud which now forms the Isle of Sheppy. 



During Dr. J. D. Hooker's stay at Calcutta, his leisure hours were spent 

 partly at Government House and partly at Sir Laurence Peel's residence. 

 The attractions he there met with do not appear to have prevented his 

 attention being steadily employed on the great objects of his mission ; for 

 towards the close of the month of January we meet him at Mr. Williams's 

 camp, at Taldangah, a dawk station, near the western limits of the coal 

 basin, the Damooda valley; here — 



" The coal crops out at surface ; but the shafts are sunk through thick beds of 

 alluvium. The age of these coal-fields is quite unknown, and I regret (o say that 

 my examination of their fossil plants throws no material light upon the subject ; 

 upwards of thirty species of fossil plants have been procured, and of these the 

 majority are referred by Dr. M'Clelland to the inferior oolite period of England, 

 from the prevalence of Lamia, Glossopteris, and Tceniopteris. Some of these 

 genera, together with the Vertebraria (a very remarkable Indian fossil), are also 

 recognised in the coal-fields of Sind and of Australia. I cannot, however, think 

 that botanical evidence of such a nature is sufficient to warrant a satisfactory refer- 

 ence of these Indian coal-fields to the same epoch as those of England or of 

 Australia ; in the first place, the outlines of the fronds of ferns, and their nervation, 

 are frail characters, if employed for the determination of existing genera, and much 

 more so of fossil fragments ; in the second, recent ferns are so widely distributed that 

 an inspection of the majority affords but little clue to the region or locality they 

 come from ; and, in the third place, considering the wide difference in latitude and 

 longitude of Yorkshire, India, and Australia, the natural conclusion is, that they 

 could not have supported a similar vegetation at the same epoch. In fact, finding 



