Mr. J. McClelland on Indian Cyprinidae. 37 



the first time, attracted by a remark of Buchanan, in conse- 

 quence of which I thought it necessary to make inquiry for 

 certain drawings alluded to, ' Pise. Gang/ p. 316. I had heard 

 of drawings at the Botanic Garden, but never saw them, and 

 always supposed them to be merely the originals of published 

 figures ; but I confess I was quite unprepared to receive at 

 that time a collection of drawings from Dr. Wallich, amount- 

 ing to 150, beautifully executed, and including nearly all the 

 unpublished species on which my painters had been so long 

 employed, with the specific names in Buchanan's hand-wri- 

 ting marked under the figures, so as to leave no doubt or dif- 

 ficulty in referring them to corresponding descriptions in the 

 ' Gangetic Fishes/ I am not prepared to state how many un- 

 figured species this interesting collection contains, except in 

 the particular family which is the subject of this paper. Along 

 with these drawings I received intimation from Dr. Wallich, 

 that two folio volumes of manuscripts and drawings on gene- 

 ral zoological subjects, by the late Dr. Buchanan, still remain 

 at the Garden. The descriptions alluded to may probably serve 

 as a key to Hardwicke's e Illustrations/ into which I perceive 

 several figures of Cyprinidce have been accurately copied, ex- 

 cept in the colouring, from Buchanan's drawings ; and as no 

 descriptions of the plates of Hardwicke's work have been yet 

 to my knowledge published, the source from whence the 

 figures in question came does not transpire, and there is no 

 allusion to it on the plates ; at any rate it is unfair to General 

 Hardwicke, as it is to Dr. Buchanan and to all who are en- 

 gaged in pursuits connected with the natural history of this 

 or any other country, to have the unpublished works of any 

 man shut up for twenty-two years in a library that is not open 

 to the public*. 



* Buchanan's Researches regarding the fishes of India commenced on his 

 arrival in the country in 1794, and ended with the publication of the ' Gan- 

 getic Fishes' in 1822. Anything that tended to lessen the value of a work 

 that occupied so much of such a life is to be regretted. It is stated in a 

 biographical notice of Buchanan in Chambers's • Lives of Scotchmen,' that on 

 his departure from India he was deprived by the Marquis of Hastings of all 

 his extensive drawings and papers relating to every branch of natural hi- 

 story, particularly botany ; " although to me," quoting his own words to the 

 Edinburgh Philosophical Society, " as an individual, they were of no va- 

 lue, as I preserve no collections, and have no occasion to convert, them into 

 money, but I was merely desirous of seeing them safely deposited in the 

 India House." In deciding that Buchanan's papers should be retained in 

 India, it may be presumed that the object was, that they should here be 

 rendered more useful to the country than they could be in England. It 

 could scarcely have occurred to the Marquis of Hastings that these works 

 would be consigned to oblivion, and the author in consequence supersede.il 

 by his successors. 



