Himalayan Journals; or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, &c

Description:

The Minerva Library of Famous Books. Sir Joseph Hooker (1817-1911) was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the nineteenth century. He succeeded his father, Sir William Jackson Hooker, as Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and was a close friend and supporter of Charles Darwin. His journey to the Himalayas and India was undertaken between 1847 and 1851 to collect plants for Kew, and his account, published in 1854, was dedicated to Darwin. Hooker collected some 7,000 species in India and Nepal, and carried out surveys and made maps which proved of economic and military importance to the British. He was arrested by the Rajah of Sikkim, but the British authorities secured his release by threatening to invade, and annexing part of the small kingdom. He makes many observations about the inhabitants of the areas he visited, making the book a useful resource for anyone interested in nineteenth-century India. This work was first published in 2 volumes by John Murray in 1854.

Condition

8vo, orig. publisher's light-blue cloth, lightly rubbed to extremities. Small ownership stamp and owner's name to endpaper; owner's name to top margin of Introduction obscured with correcting fluid. Folding maps loosely inserted at rear, with a few spots of light foxing and very short tears to margin of one map. Vg.