114 TASMANIA AND THE ANTAECTIC 
comfortable here both in my mess, the cabin and the ship. 
My only regret is that the necessarily altered course and 
prospects of the voyage stand so much in the way of Botany. 
The utter desolation of 70° South could never have been 
expected, and Capt. Boss as fully expected to wir.ter, and 
collect plants in spring and leave the ice for good and all 
as I did, as also that we should be able anywhere to land 
and collect as in the North. It cannot be helped now, we 
must again return to the Southward, and I shall be again 
employed alternately collecting sea animals, examining 
plants and sketching coast views. I shall, however, never 
regret having gone the voyage, for I doubt not we shall enjoy 
the thanks and praise of our countrymen for what we have 
done. No pains has been spared to render the voyage 
serviceable, we have done our best, and Capt. Boss's 
perseverance has been put to the most severe test in pene- 
trating as far as he has, and for my own part I am wilhng 
to work night and day, as I have done, to make accurate 
sketches of the products of our labors. To me it will be 
always a satisfaction to know that I have done according 
to my poor abilities, and if I cannot please Botanists I am 
not therefore to be idle when I may do some good to zoology. 
Could I with honor leave the expedition here, I would at 
once and send home my plants for sale as I collected them, 
but now my hope and earnest wish is to be able on my 
return home to devote my time solely to Botany and to 
that end the sooner we get back the better for me. My 
habits are not expensive, but should I not be able to Hve 
at home with you, I would have no objection to follow 
Gardner's 1 steps and gain an honorable hvelihood by the 
sale of specimens. 
It is well worth setting down another and quite unlooked 
for impression of these scenes, for some of the most curiously 
1 George Gardner (1812^9) was a Glasgow man who studied under Sir 
W. J. Hooker. His botanical journey to Brazil in 1836 was made possible 
through Sir William, who helped him to secure a number of subscribers, 
including the Duke of Bedford, for the plants he might collect. He returned 
in 1841 with a vast collection, an enumeration of which he published, as well 
as accounts of new species, and a paper on the connection of Climate and 
Vegetation. His full accoimt of his travels appeared in 1846. In 1844 he 
was appointed Superintendent of the Ceylon Botanical Garden, where his active 
career was cut short by apoplexy, March 10, 1849. The vacant post was 
offered to Hooker, but refused by him. 
