viii Report on the Zoological SuTvey of India 



and so expensive. The only parts of Burma and Assam in whicli we 

 have as yet made detailed investigation of the aquatic molluscs are 

 the Inle Lake in the Southern Shan States and the valley of the frontier 

 state of Manipur. I will now deal with our tour in the latter, which 

 was undertaken partly for the study of the molluscs and partly in order 

 to give the new research assistants opportunities for learning field-work 

 under particularly favourable conditions. 



The State of Manipur, although associated politically with Assam, 

 is more closely connected with Burma from a 



Tour in Manipur. geographical point of view. The distinguished 

 malacologist, Lieutenant-Colonel H. H. Godwin- Austen, F.R.S., who 

 visited Manipur in the sixties and collected there the only freshwater 

 molluscs known with certainty to come from the State, had been 

 urging me for some time to investigate the molluscs of the Loktak 

 Lake in the Manipur valley. As I found it would now be possible to 

 reach i he valley by motor from the railway I arranged to do so in 

 February, 1920. My two research assistants, Messrs. Sunder Lall 

 Hora and Amin-ud-Din, went on ahead accompanied by Mr. R. 

 Hodgart, Zoological Collector in the Zoological Survey, and we spent 

 about a fortnight together in the valley. Mr. Sunder Lall Hora stayed 

 behind for three weeks after the rest of the party and made large addi- 

 tional collections, visiting every part of the valley. Owing to the 

 kindness of His Highness the Maharaja of Manipur, who had personally 

 invited me to visit his State in the interests of science, a special camp 

 was erected for us on Thanga Island in the Loktak Lake, of the fauna 

 of which we were able to make comprehensive collections. With these 

 I will have to deal in my next report, I must express our thanks also 

 to Mr. W. A. Crosgrave, I.C.S., then Political Agent in Manipur, for the 

 very great assistance he gave us. 



On our tours in connection with the survey of the molluscs I did not 

 think that it would be right to neglect the rest of 



Tour in beistan* the aquatic fauna. Such an opportunity was not 

 likely to occur again, and I am convinced that, from the most strictly 

 practical point of view, it is impossible in a biological survey of an aqua- 

 tic fauna to consider any one group of animals without reference to 

 1 he other constituents thereof, unless the results are to be purely super' 

 ficial. The collection of fish and polyzoa made in Seistan was per- 

 haps more interesting from a zoological point of view than that of the 

 molluscs and their parasites. I may, therefore, say a little more about 

 our trip to Seistan. We started from Quetta and crossed the Perso- 

 Baluch desert by the recently constructed railway to a point three 

 marches distant from the spot at which the Afghan, British and Persian 

 frontiers meet. The transport difficulties were very great, but not- 

 withstanding the fact that there was further difficulty about our status, 

 the military authorities helped us very greatly by placing a motor car 

 and camels at our disposal for the journey of two hundred miles across 

 the desert from the Persian frontier to Shahr-i-Seistan or Nasratabad. 

 There we were received with great hospitality by Colonel F. B. Prideux, 

 C. S. I., the retiring British Consul. Our further journeys in the 

 country were arranged by Mr. Gould, who assumed the duties of Consul 



