CHAPTER XIV 
THE SECOND HIMALAYAN JOURNEY 
It was now too late to proceed to the hills of Assam, where 
the healthy winter season would soon be over. This was small 
disappointment. The other mountains south of the Ganges, 
which had so charmed him the previous April, had lost all their 
attraction now that he had seen the veritable Himalayas. 
Moreover Hodgson laid stress on the simple fact that it was 
better to explore one district thoroughly than to wander. He 
resolved therefore to stay at Darjiling, where Hodgson's society 
and library, Miiller's scientific aid, and Campbell's zealous 
interest, were strong inducements to a man who aimed at 
being something beyond a collector and tourist, and to follow 
up his success on the west of Kinchinjunga by an expedition 
to the east of it the next summer, comipleting the botany and 
sending home young plants and especially seeds, of which he 
writes to Sir William, 
I have done my best to give satisfaction. I stayed at 
13,000 feet very much on purpose to collect those of the 
Ehododendrons, and with cold fingers it is not easy at the 
ripening season, December, to collect those from the scattered 
twigs, generally out of reach. (March 27, 1849.) 
As to getting the seed of R. Dalhousiae, there was a further 
difficulty, 
for you cannot see the plant on the limbs of the lofty oaks 
it inhabits, except it be in flower, and groping at random 
in the woods is really like digging for daylight . . . You 
must remember it is no light work to be the pioneer of these 
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