1843-44 SIR JOHN FRANKLIN 237 
23 Norfolk Street, Strand : June 4, 1844. 
‘ 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 
