The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: ¶ [Dr. Hooker, in writing to Dr von Mueller, says that he measured the height of the Greater Atlas on two planes, and that he owes the fortunate privilege of accomplishing this task to the favour of ...

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71.07.00c

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Joseph Hooker to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1871-07 [71.07.00c]. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id/71-07-00c>, accessed September 11, 2025

Letter not found. For the text given here, see Argus, 2 September 1871, p. 5. See also M to J. Hooker, 6 September 1871. The letter dated on the basis that Hooker returned to London on 21 June 1871, and the letter to M must have been mailed by mid-July to have been available for M to place the item in the newspaper in September.

[Dr. Hooker, in writing to Dr von Mueller, says that he measured the height of the Greater Atlas on two planes, and that he owes the fortunate privilege of accomplishing this task to the favour of Earl Granville, who obtained for the explorers the Sultan's protection. The obstacles were enormous, due chiefly to the feelings of hostility which the Moors display to any one not belonging to their own creed.]

The text is introduced by 'We owe the following interesting particulars to Dr. von Mueller, government Botanist:— While Dr Livingstone is pursuing his perilous travels in the unknown regions of Central Africa, another party of eminent men has gone forth from England in the cause of science to explore the northern part of the that great continent. On the 16th of May Dr J. D. Hooker, director of the Royal gardens of Kew, together with Messrs. George Maw and J. Ball, ascended the summit of that part of the Atlas mountains which had never before been trod by the foot of a European. After several vain endeavours to approach the main range by the south-western valleys of Morocco, they chose at last for the base of their operations a valley lying due south, in the province of Rerid. Having assured themselves of the friendship of the sheik who is the ruler of this district, inhabited by a tribe of barbarous mountaineers known under the name of Shlengs, the bold explorers were led by their guides up a picturesque gully to a village situated 7,000 feet above sea-level. After many obstacles and fatiguing climbing they reached from this point the summit of the range which divides the waters of the plain of Morocco in the north from the southern watercourses, having a height of nearly 12,000 feet; the isolated peaks were estimated even 400 or 500 feet higher. They were rewarded for their troubles by many discoveries in natural history, and formed rich collections for the Kew herbarium, having, besides, determined the geological formation of this classic chain of mountains.'

Except for the opening sentence referring to Livingstone and the two sentences presented here that are attributed to a letter from Hooker to M, the text of the article is essentially a version of an article that was widely printed in different forms in British newspapers, for example, 'Ascent of the Great Atlas', The Times, 12 June 1871, p. 10, col c.; The Star, Guernsey, 15 June 1871, p. 4; Bury and Norwich Post, 11 July 1871, p. 2. It is probable that M received a cutting of an article with the letter from Hooker and passed this on to the Argus.

Hooker had sent from Morocco long reports of the ascent in letters to Sir Roderick Murchison at the Royal Geographical Society, two of which (dated 'Camp Hasni, Atlas Mountains, May 17 1871', and 'Mogadore, 6 June 1871'), were subsequently printed in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. 15, No. 3, 1870-1, pp 212-21. The information in the British newspaper articles corresponds to that in the first letter; the second reports Ball and Hooker having ascended a second peak, consistent with the 'two planes' [=two places?] mentioned in Hooker’s letter to Mueller.