32 EARLY DAYS 
When I went to bed at a late hour last night I left him 
writing an answer to you, and indeed he may, with a clear 
conscience, give a good account of himself for the last three 
or four weeks, especially as relates to his botanical pursuits. 
He has worked at plants with a degree of steadiness and 
ardour that has been most gratifying, and it appears that 
his industry is hkely to meet with its reward . . . [i.e. in 
selection for the Antarctic Expedition]. 
Three letters of August and September 1838, from the 
young Hooker to his father, tell how he went with Dr. Graham 
on a botanising trip in Ireland (August 2-18); to the British 
Association Meeting at Newcastle (21-30) ; and then proceeded 
to visit Dr. Eichardson ^ at Haslar (September 1-4), when the 
latter was to take stock of him, so to say, before recommending 
him for the Antarctic Expedition. 
Details of travelling in those days have a curious interest 
in comparison with to-day. Thus, leaving Dublin 
at 4 P.M., started in a track-boat for Ballinasloe, where we 
were met by a Biancini car, which took us to Galway by 
8 P.M. on Friday night ; the car and track- boat were of 
the same company, and we went the w^hole excm^sion, 140 
miles, for 18s. each, including a dinner and a breakfast ; 
this, however, was the only cheap travelling experienced. 
To get from Newcastle to Portsmouth he was advised 
to take the coach from Newcastle to London at 9 a.m. on 
Thursday, which I did for £2. I went the whole distance, 
including coachmen and eating, for £3. I travelled all 
night, and arrived in London on Friday night, at 8 p.m. 
A coach was then starting for Portsmouth, in which I took 
a place, 14s., and arrived here on Saturday at 8 a.m. 
1 Sir John Richardson (1787-1865, and knighted 1846) saw much active 
service as naval surgeon, 1807-15, then returned to Edinburgh and took his 
M.D., at the same time studying i)otany and mineralogy. He v/as Naturalist 
to Sir John Franklin on two Arctic expeditions, 1819-22 and 1825-27. 
For ten years he was head of the Melville Hospital at Chatham, and from 
1838 was physician to the Royal Hospital at Haslar, where young naval 
surgeons awaiting their gazetting to ships were under him. Again, in 1848-9 he 
led the expedition in search of Franklin. His second wife, m. 1833, d. 1845, 
was a niece of Franklin's. In addition to his works on Polar Zoology and 
Travel, his special subject was Fishes. 
