PREFACE. 



as written for my private friends. Arriving at Calcutta 

 in January, I passed the remainder of the cold season in 

 making myself acquainted with the vegetation of the plains 

 and hills of Western Bengal, south of the Ganges, by a 

 journey across the mountains of Birbhoom and Behar to 

 the Soane valley, and thence over the Vindhya range 

 to the Ganges, at Mirzapore, whence I descended that 

 stream to Bhaugulpore; and leaving my boat, struck 

 north to the Sikkim Himalaya. This excursion is 

 detailed in the " London Journal of Botany," and the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal honoured me by printing the 

 meteorological observations made during its progress. 



During the two years' residence in Sikkim which 

 succeeded, I was laid under obligations of no ordinary 

 nature to Brian H. Hodgson, Esq., B. C. S., for many 

 years Resident at the Nepal Court ; whose guest I became 

 for several months. Mr. Hodgson's high position as a 

 man of science requires no mention here ; but the diffi- 

 culties he overcame, and the sacrifices he made, in 

 attaining that position, are known to few. He entered the 

 wilds of Nepal when very young, and in indifferent health ; 

 and finding time to spare, cast about for the best method 

 of employing it : he had no one to recommend or direct a 

 pursuit, no example to follow, no rival to equal or surpass ; 

 he had never been acquainted with a scientific man, and 

 knew nothing of science except the name. The natural 

 history of men and animals, in its most comprehensive 

 sense, attracted his attention ; he sent to Europe for 

 books, and commenced the study of ethnology and 



