Returning photographs, with observations. Regarding the transport of loads in hilly country. Remarks on the transcription and pronunciation of foreign languages.

JDH writes to his father, William Jackson Hooker, to inform him of the expedition's movements & his own activities. He has previously sent WJH some drawings & a map showing the position of Mount Erebus. They did not stop at the Chathams so JDH could not send the live New Zealand tree ferns & pines, it being too costly for Captain Ross to pay freight via Sydney. JDH has collected many new moss & lichen species, but not many new plants. He has made extensive notes & drawings of the New Zealand flora & landscape. Mentions that the New Zealand Fagus is the same Birch found in the Straits of Magellan according to Vancouver's VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY TO THE NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN. Mentions a mistake in his notes re. the number of anthers in Oreobolus. In New Zealand JDH became good friends with Dr Sinclair via whom he sends a parasitic caterpillar fungus from Rev Taylor of Waimate. It was found near Yass on the Murrumbidgee River in New Holland [Australia] by John Allan who has also provided information, which JDH transcribes. JDH also recounts what he found out about the habits of Spheria robertsii, another fungus that uses Caterpillars as a host. The letter continues under date May 3 [1842] JDH having returned from a hunt. JDH is sending letters on the ship 'Arrow' via Rio de Janeiro to his family, Bentham, Dalton & the Bootts. He also intends to write to Ward & Brown. In the Falkland Islands he has collected: Balka Brunonii, new Cardamine, some Grasses, a Halorageous Kerguelen's Land plant, a Ranunculus. Andreae are common & other Mosses are in fruit. Discusses investigation of Tussac Grass [Poa flabellata], a remarkable species of Carex Governor Moody wants information about. A Mr Wright has been botanising in the Falklands & Wilmot has been relieved at the Cape. JDH sends best wishes to Captain Beaufort & the Sabines. The expedition is in need of supplies, JDH needs spectacles & packing paper & wants to hear about RBG Kew & [George] Gardner. Sends regards from McCormick.