218 THE GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY 
post. Difficulties, however, evaporated in personal discussion, 
when at the beginning of October Hooker met Lord Auckland, 
then First Lord of the Admiralty, dming a visit in the Isle 
of Man to his brother the Bishop. Then it was airanged that 
if he went to India first, he should go on to join the frigate 
Mceander at Borneo during the healthier season and prepare 
a botanical report on the British possessions there, keeping his 
half pay till he arrived and then being put on full pay, with 
botanical allowances of £300 during his term of service.^ This 
paved the way for an appeal to the Treasury for a grant of 
£400 a year for two years on behalf of the Gardens to cover 
their botanist's expenses in collecting. 
The Eastern Himalayas were practically unknown. Lord 
Auckland and Dr. Falconer ^ alike proposed that he should 
explore the Sikkim valley up to the snows on the Tibetan 
frontier. It was under our protectorate, and Hooker, on his 
official mission, would be accredited to the British Eesident. 
Keinforced by a striking letter from the veteran Humboldt 
pointing out to Hooker what could be done by him in the 
Himalaj^a for science. Lord Morpeth, of the Woods and Forests, 
prevailed on the Treasury at the eleventh hour to give the 
grant. On October 20 came an official intimation that the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer had given his hearty consent 
to the Indian Mission, and the x\dmiralty proposed that a free 
passage should be granted as far as Alexandria at least in the 
Sidon, which was to sail on November 9, conveying Lord 
Dalhousie, the new Governor-General, to India. This proposal 
was made subject to Lord Dalhousie's consent. Sir William 
immediately called upon him, when so far from raising 
objections, he insisted that Joseph should continue the whole 
journey with him to India, thus overcoming the various 
difficulties raised by the East India Company in regard to the 
journey from Aden to Calcutta. Indeed, he enjoyed Hooker's 
1 When the "Borneo expedition was abandoned, the £300 was allotted to 
a third year in India. 
' Hugh Falconer (1808-65), Palaeontologist and Botanist; M.A. Aberdeen 
1826, M.D. Edinburgh 1829. Assistant Surgeon on the East India Co.'s estab- 
lishment 1830, and Superintendent of the Saharanpur Botanical Gardens 1832. 
Superintended the manufacture of the first Indian tea 1834 ; Professor of 
Botany at Calcutta Medical College ; Vice-President of the Royal Society. 
