HOOKER, Joseph Dalton.

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Himalayan Journals; or Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, &c. First edition, providing "rich data for an early Victorian naturalist's multilayered understanding of the tropics, for their aesthetic form as much as their scientific significance" (Arnold, p. 141). The work is dedicated to Darwin.Hooker (1817-1911) began his career as a surgeon in the navy. "Unable to travel as a gentleman naturalist of independent means like his idol Darwin, he used his medical qualification to secure an appointment as Assistant Surgeon on HMS Erebus for the Ross expeditions... He then used this opportunity to do much botanizing in the Southern Ocean nations, especially New Zealand" (Kew). Following the Erebus expedition, Hooker was eager "to undertake a similar expedition, this time in search of tropical flora. Selecting the relatively unexplored eastern Himalayas, rather than the Andes whose natural phenomena Humboldt had done so much to bring to the attention of the international scientific community. Hooker traveled overland from Calcutta, through Bengal and Bihar, and into the Himalayas. From his base at Darjeeling, he explored, sketched, mapped, and botanized Sikkim, as far north as the border with Tibet and around the slopes of Kangchenjunga, then reckoned to be the highest mountain in the world" (Arnold, p. 141).During this leg of the expedition, Hooker and one of his travelling companions, Archibald Campbell, were famously imprisoned b

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