XVI 



the most remarkable of the newly discovered forms, appeared in the 

 ' Asiatic Researches,' the ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' and 

 in the * Geological Transactions.' The Sewalik explorations soon attracted 

 notice in Europe, and in 1837 the Wollaston Medal, in duplicate, was 

 awarded for their discoveries to Dr. Falconer and Capt. Cautley by the 

 Geological Society. 



In 1834 a Commission was appointed by the Bengal Government to 

 inquire into and report on the fitness of India for the growth of the tea- 

 plant of China. Acting on the information and advice supplied by Dr. 

 Falconer (Journ. Asiat. Soc. of Bengal, 1834, iii. p. 182), the Commission 

 recommended a trial. The Government adopted the recommendation; 

 the plants were imported from China, and the experimental researches 

 were placed under Falconer's superintendence in sites selected by him. 

 Tea culture has since then greatly extended in India, and the tea of 

 Bengal bids fair to become one of the most important commercial exports 

 from India, as Falconer long ago predicted. 



In 1837 Dr. Falconer was ordered to accompany Burnes's second 

 mission to Caubul, which preceded the Affghan war. Proceeding first 

 westward to Kohat and the lower part of the valley of Bunguish, he ex- 

 amined the Trans-Indus portion of the Salt-range, and then made for 

 Cashmeer, where he passed the winter and spring in examining the natural 

 history of the valley, and in making extensive botanical collections. The 

 following summer (1838) he crossed the mountains to Iskardo, in Bulkis- 

 tan, and traced the Shiggar branch of the Indus to its source in the 

 glacier, on the southern flank of the Mooztagh range. Having examined 

 the great glaciers of Arindoh and of the Brahldoh valley, he then returned 

 to India via Cashmeer and the Punjab, towards the close of 1838, to re- 

 sume charge of his duties at Suharunpoor. His report of this expedition 

 was at the time one of great interest ana importance. 



In this, as in many other scientific expeditions. Falconer's health suffered 

 greatly from the results of incessant exposure; and in 1842 he w^as com- 

 pelled to return to Europe on sick leave, bringing with him the natural 

 history collections am.assed by him during ten years of exploration of the 

 Himalayahs, of the plains of India, and of the valley of Cashmeer. They 

 amounted to eighty cases of dried plants, and about fifty large cases of 

 fossil bones, together with geological specimens, illustrative of the Hima- 

 layan formations from the Indus to the Gogra, and from the plains of the 

 Punjab across the mountains north to the Mooztagh range. This exten- 

 sive collection of Indian fossils, together with the still larger collection 

 presented by Capt. Cautley, now forms one of the distinguishing charac- 

 teristics in the Palaeontological Gallery of the British Museum. 



From 1843 to 1847 Falconer remained in England. He occupied this 

 time in pubhshing numerous memoirs on the geology and fossil remains of 

 the Sewalik Hills, which appeared in the Transactions of the Geological 



