I843-] SIR J. D. HOOKER'S REMINISCENCES. 381 



ralist) had allowed me to peruse them. At this time I was 

 hurrying on my studies, so as to take my degree before volun- 

 teering to accompany Sir James Ross in the Antarctic Expe- 

 dition, which had just been determined on by the Admiralty; 

 and so pressed for time was I, that I used to sleep with the 

 sheets of the ' Journal ' under my pillow, that I might read 

 them between waking and rising. They impressed me pro- 

 foundly, I might say despairingly, with the variety of acquire- 

 ments, mental and physical, required in a naturalist who 

 should follow in Darwin's footsteps, whilst they stimulated me 

 to enthusiasm in the desire to travel and observe. 



" It has been a permanent source of happiness to me 

 that I knew so much of Mr. Darwin's scientific work so many 

 years before that intimacy began which ripened into feelings 

 as near to those of reverence for his life, works, and char- 

 acter as is reasonable and proper. It only, remains to add 

 to this little episode that I received a copy of the ' Journal ' 

 complete, — a gift from Mr. Lyell, — a few days before leaving 

 England. 



" Very soon after the return of the Antarctic Expedition 

 my correspondence with Mr. Darwin began (December, 1843) 

 by his sending me a long letter, warmly congratulating me on 

 my return to my family and friends, and expressing a wish to 

 hear more of the results of the expedition, of which he had 

 derived some knowledge from private letters of my own 

 (written to or communicated through Mr. Lyell). Then, 

 plunging at once into scientific matters, he directed my atten- 

 tion to the importance of correlating the Fuegian Flora with 

 that of the Cordillera and of Europe, and invited me to study 

 the botanical collections which he had made in the Galapagos 

 Islands, as well as his Patagonian and Fuegian plants. 



" This led to me sending him an outline of the conclusions 

 I had formed regarding the distribution of plants in the 

 southern regions, and the necessity of assuming the destruc- 

 tion of considerable areas of land to account for the relations 

 of the flora of the so-called Antarctic Islands. I do not sup- 

 pose that any of these ideas were new to him, but they led 



