Himalayan Journals

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911) is remembered as an eminent Victorian botanist and one of Charles Darwin's chief collaborators. Sir Hooker traversed the Central and Eastern Himalayas in 1848, a time when no traveller or naturalist, however bedazzled by its mystique, had ventured forth. These journals are much more than exhaustive notes of botanical interest, they are packed with appealing anecdotes and significant sociological insights, sprinkled with a pinch of humour.