AS GEOLOGIST 307 



continental area of the earth's surface. Many isolated islands 

 had also been examined by him, especially on the Antarctic 

 voyage. Not only were fresh regions thus opened up for 

 survey and collection, but each objective of the later journeys 

 was definitely chosen for scientific reasons. Each expedition 

 helped to suggest or to solve major problems. Such problems 

 related not only to the distribution, but also to the very origin 

 of species. Darwin saw this with unerring judgment as early 

 as 1845. Hooker was then but twenty-eight years old, and 

 the records of the Antarctic voyage were only in preparation. 

 Nevertheless Darwin wrote with full assurance in a letter to 

 Hooker himself: "I know I shall live to see you the first 

 authority in Europe on that grand subject, that almost keystone 

 of the laws of Creation, Geographical Distribution." Never was 

 a forecast more fully justified. But that position, which Hooker 

 undoubtedly had, could only have been attained through his 

 personal experience as a traveller. Observation at first hand 

 was the foundation upon which he chiefly worked. Hooker the 

 traveller prepared the way for Hooker the philosopher. 



Sir Joseph Hooker would probably have declined to consider 

 himself as a Geologist. He was, however, for some eighteen 

 months official Botanist to the Geological Survey of Great 

 Britain. He was appointed in April 1846, but relinquished the 

 post in November 1847 in order to start on his Himalayan 

 journey. During that short period three Memoirs were published 

 by him on Plants of the Coal Period. They embodied results 

 derived from the microscopic exam.ination of plant-tissues pre- 

 served in Coal Balls, a study then newly introduced by Witham, 

 and advanced by Mr Binney. It has since been greatly developed 

 in this country. Such studies were continued by him at intervals 

 up to 1855.' While he was thus among the first to engage in 

 this branch of enquiry, he may be said to have originated 

 another line of study, since largely pursued by geologists. For 

 he examined samples of diatomaceous ooze from the ocean-floor 

 of the Antarctic, and so initiated the systematic treatment of 

 the organic deposits of the deep sea. Yet another branch of 

 geological enquiry was advanced by him in the Himalaya. For 

 there he made observations on the glaciers of that great mountain 



20 2 



