26 Annval Aihh-ess. [PeB. 



m-.wy assistance fi'om the Government of the Straits Settlements which 

 it is hoped will follow tiie liberal example of the Government of 

 Netherlands India in respect of encouraging science. Major Alcock, 

 I. M. S., has also published the third part of his Carcinological Fauna 

 of India, dealing with the ci"abs of the family Xanthidx, of which the 

 Indian species alone number 153, nearly all represented in the collec- 

 tion of the Indian Museum. As this series which revises existing 

 systems of classification is absolutely indispensable to anyone desiring 

 to study the Crustacea of Indian waters, and is most important for 

 work on these animals in general, it is very desirable that it should be 

 completed and if possible illustrated by plates of new or rai'e or note- 

 worthy species. 



It must be remembered — and I take this opportunity of laying 

 stress on the fact — that it is really to the Asiatic Society of Bengal that 

 the scienHfic world owes the unique series of ichthyological data which 

 have been collected in connexion with the Hydrographic Survey of the 

 Indian coast. So long ago as June 187J, the Council of this Society ap- 

 pointed a Committee to report upon tlie advisability of deep-sea dredging 

 in Indian waters. The report of the Committee — which is printed in our 

 Proceedings for 1871 — was forwarded by the Council to the Government 

 of India, by whom it was so far favourably received that a Govern- 

 ment grant was made for the purchase of the necessary apparatus. 

 Nothing further followed, probably because no properly equipped vessel 

 was available ; but in 1876, when the present Marine Survey Depart- 

 ment was fairly established, the Council again addressed Government 

 on the subject. The lesult was that Government authorized the Council 

 of the Society to confer directly with the Dockyard authorities as to the 

 scientific outfit of the vessel designed for the accommodation of the Survey. 

 In consequence not only did the Government equip this new vessel with 

 apparatus for deep-sea research, but it also appointed an officer of the 

 Indian Medical Service as Surgeon-Naturalist to the Survey. The 

 new vessel was launched in 1881, and has since 1885 been systematically 

 cai'rying on deep-sea investigations as a subordinate part of her routine. 

 And now, thanks to the energetic initiative of the Council of tlie Society, 

 there has been acquired a knowledge of the physical geography and 

 fauna of the deep-sea-basins of the Indian region that will compare 

 favourably with the state of knowledge of similar parts of the seas of 

 Europe and North America. From the first, the zoological department 

 of the Survey was, in accordance with tlie recommendation of the 

 Council of the Society, associated with the Indian Museum, to the 

 mutual advantage of both institutions. I have the authority of Dr. 

 Giiiither, President of the Linnean Society, for staling that the lebult 



