1843-44 SIR JOHN FRANKLIN 237 



23 Norfolk Street, Strand : June 4, 1844. 



1 My dear Owen, — On Saturday next at 9 p.m. 

 I am to give another say at the Asiatic Society, 

 on the general bearings of the Sewalik fauna — 

 geographical, climatal, and geological, &c. 



* I want to make the occasion a means of 

 acting on the Court through a public expression 

 of opinion, to take up the publication of the 

 Sewalik fossils, and your presence as the leading 

 head in comparative anatomy would be very im- 

 portant aid. Can you afford an hour to undergo 

 another infliction ? I shall be done by ten o'clock, 

 and there will be a discussion at the end. 



' Forbes tells me that you went last time 

 prepared to have spoken, but the late hour and 

 Lord Auckland's omission to start a discussion 

 left you no opportunity. 



' Yours very truly, 



' H. Falconer.' 



On June 29, 1844, he writes to his sister 

 Catherine : ' I dined last night at the Geological 

 Club, and sat between Sir John Franklin and 

 Dr. Buckland. Sir John had just returned from 

 his government at Van Diemen's Land. I have 

 been indebted to him for several rare beasts from 

 that island, sent in spirits for dissection. In the 

 course of conversation I found that he had been 

 in the battle of Trafalgar, midshipman in the 

 seventh ship of Lord Collingwood's line. His 



