218 THE GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY 



post. Difficulties, however, evaporated in personal discussion, 

 when at the beginning of October Hooker met Lord Auckland, 

 then First Lord of the Admiralty, during a visit in the Isle 

 of Man to his brother the Bishop. Then it was arranged that 

 if he went to India first, he should go on to join the frigate 

 Mceander at Borneo during the healthier season and prepare 

 a botanical report on the British possessions there, keeping his 

 half pay till he arrived and then being put on full pay, with 

 botanical allowances of £300 during his term of service.^ This 

 paved the way for an appeal to the Treasury for a grant of 

 £400 a year for two years on behalf of the Gardens to cover 

 their botanist's expenses in collecting. 



The Eastern Himalayas were practically unknown. Lord 

 Auckland and Dr. Falconer ^ alike proposed that he should 

 explore the Sikkim valley up to the snows on the Tibetan 

 frontier. It was under our protectorate, and Hooker, on his 

 official mission, would be accredited to the British Kesident. 



Eeinforced by a striking letter from the veteran Humboldt 

 pointing out to Hooker what could be done by him in the 

 Himalaya for science. Lord Morpeth, of the Woods and Forests, 

 prevailed on the Treasury at the eleventh hour to give the 

 grant. On October 20 came an official intimation that the 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer had given his hearty consent 

 to the Indian Mission, and the Admiralty proposed that a free 

 passage should be granted as far as Alexandria at least in the 

 Sidon, which was to sail on November 9, conveying Lord 

 Dalhousie, the new Governor- General, to India. This proposal 

 was made subject to Lord Dalhousie's consent. Sir William 

 immediately called upon him, when so far from raising 

 objections, he insisted that Joseph should continue the whole 

 journey with him to India, thus overcoming the various 

 difficulties raised by the East India Company in regard to the 

 journey from Aden to Calcutta. Indeed, he enjoyed Hooker's 



^ When the Borneo expedition was abandoned, the £300 was allotted to 

 a third year in India. 



2 Hugh Falconer (1808-65), Palaeontologist and Botanist; M.A. Aberdeen 

 1826, M.D. Edinburgh 1829. Assistant Surgeon on the East India Co.'s estab- 

 lishment 1830, and Superintendent of the Saharanpur Botanical Gardens 1832. 

 Superintended the manufacture of the first Indian tea 1834 ; Professor of 

 Botany at Calcutta Medical College ; Vice-President of the Royal Society. 



