Informs JH that the B.A.A.S. has again placed him on the committee to supervise the translation and publication of foreign scientific memoirs.
JH, G. B. Airy, and Thomas Henderson are appointed to oversee the publication of the reductions of the calculations of N. L. Lacaille's stars. They will have £184 at their disposal.
JH, William Whewell, George Peacock, Humphrey Lloyd, and Edward Sabine are appointed by the B.A.A.S. to study systems of simultaneous magnetical and meteorological observations. They will be granted £50.
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Notes loss of many old friends. Three years seclusion with bad health produced WW's treatise on conic sections, translated to Russian. Sends book on geometrical theorems and two memoirs. Discovered JH stated in 1813 what WW thought was recent discovery about catenary.
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Meteorolite given to JH by [Thomas] Maclear has been lost. Asks JR for assistance in locating it.
JDH writes to give his father, William Jackson Hooker, an account of Kerguelen Island. First comments on places they passed on the voyage there. Agulhas bank; rich with marine animals, Macrocystis pyrifera & seas birds incl. Albatross & Cape Pigeon which provided fresh meat. Marion Island; noted for volcanic mountains, penguin colonies, white coral & diverse marine life. The Crozets; found far East of the mapped position. Possession Island; barren of all but grass & moss. May 6th reached Bligh's Cap. After days of delay due to bad weather landed at Christmas Harbour, Kerguelen Island, on 12th. Describes the harbour, terraced mountains, rocky landscape & persistently violent seas, with reference to account by Captain Cook. Describes the Kerguelen Island vegetation. First plants encountered are seaweed & lichens on the rocks, then a long grass Agrostis species, a Ranunculus & a Compositae abundant in bogs & covered with Callitriche & Portulaceaous plants. Gives detailed description of the Kerguelen cabbage incl. its taste & medicinal properties i.e. preventing scurvy & heart burn. Also describes an unmbelliferous plant that can cover many acres & is the only plant that does not seem to be endemic to Kerguelen. Also notes: Acaena, a Silene of elusive classification, a Poa grass, a marsh Aira & a Juncus that grows near lakes. Describes the characteristics & habitat of a plant that flowers under the frozen lakes, it may be of a new natural order though it has some features of Scrophulariaceae, Lentibulariaceae & Primulaceae. Makes some observations on the winter climate. Notes that there is 1 aquatic plant & 1 dry land plant, most vegetation grows in between in moist peaty areas. The mosses & Jungermannia were alpine & arctic forms. Describes the proliferation of lichens in different areas, though there are no large trees so no parasitical lichens. Describes prolific seaweeds esp. pyrifera & Laminaria radiata which protect limpet colonies. The only fungi is a Peziza.
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Elected today as Chancellor of Cambridge University. Thanks for JH's support.
Has just received JH's letter of August as he has been traveling on the continent. Will see G. B. Airy tomorrow. Comments on Johann von Lamont's observatory at Munich. Discussed the Report of the Magnetic arrangements with Edward Sabine. Encloses letters. L. A. J. Quetelet would like support from the R.S.L. for additional observers in his observatory.