Feels he has no choice but to comply with the request of Council that he remain in office. Is reluctant to do so as his health has caused him to miss meetings and he has never once attended without suffering the next day. Cannot hold office beyond next anniversary meeting.
Comments on CD’s paper on South American volcanoes [Trans. of the Geol. Soc. of London, 2d ser., pt 3, 5 (1840): 601–31]. Jets of steam or flame issuing from the side of a hill in Glen Almond.
Sends two lithographs. Has seen the Archbishop and expects to launch his scheme with the approval of the leading politicians.
Obliged for his kind note and also for forwarding the paper to the R.S.L. Would like to belong to the R.S.L. and would be pleased if JH would sign a certificate for him.
Sent an extract of JH's letter to P. G. le D. Pontecoulant. Now gives an extract from Pontecoulant's reply. Is sorry they are not to see JH at S. J. A. Compton's (2nd Marquis of Northampton) tonight.
JDH apologises for not writing to his grandfather, Joseph Hooker senior, from St Helena. He describes the hierarchy & his daily routine on the ship [HMS 'Erebus']. After breakfast he tends to the sick then takes meteorological observation for the Captain [James Clark Ross] & studies German. After the midday meal he checks the towing nets & after dinner draws & describes specimens & writes his journal & notes. JDH takes the dew point every day. At sea they communicate with sister ship HMS 'Terror' once a month in person & the ships exchange information on their position regularly by signal. A recent dredging near the shore gathered 30 different species of marine animals: corals, shrimp, crab, worms & sponges but no sea weed or submarine vegetation. The Captain sounds every day with a whale line & takes readings from the water at different depths using various instruments incl. a Massey's log. The deepest they have reached is 2477 fathoms & often the sea is too deep to reach the bottom. Sounding at 500 fathoms requires all the men to haul the line back in, a fiddler plays for encouragement - often Rob Roy. JDH tells his grandfather of the hospitality of the Muir family & an invitation from Andrew Johnson to his house, the 'Palle', near Funchal, Madeira. Discusses the diminishing provisions on the long cruise between St Helena & the Cape de Verde & the rations allowed to each man incl. a 'gill of grog' & lemon juice to prevent scurvy. The captain arranged a Christmas dinner & New Year's party. On Sundays there is a church service on the lower deck. The artillery officer, Wilmot, left to take charge of the Cape Observatory & some passengers have also disembarked leaving more room for the naturalists to work. JDH describes how he maintains & stores his plant specimen collection. JDH heard about the deaths of Allan Cunningham & Duke of Bedford from Mr Bowie of the Ludwigsburgh Garden. JDH asks for books in German to be sent to him at Van Diemen's Land [Tasmania].