XX Re'port on the Zoological Survey of India 



except tliat specimens of the macroscopic groups which inhabit fresh 

 water were collected on most of the tours to which I have already re- 

 ferred. Another exception may be made in the case of the Oligocheete 

 worms, to our collection of the Indian species of which very large addi- 

 tions have been made. This is mainly due to the energy and generosity 

 of Lieutenant-Colonel J. Stephenson, I.M.S., and his pupils. All the 

 type-specimens and most of the others of the collections described by 

 him in our " Records " and " Memoirs " have found a place in the 

 Indian Museum. Those not collected by officers of the Zoological Survey 

 have been presented by Colonel Stephenson, Dr. Baini Prashad and 

 others connected with the Government College, Lahore. I may also 

 refer to the freshwater sponges and polyzoa obtained by Dr. Kemp and 

 myself in Seistan as being of particular interest, for no specimens of 

 these groups were previously known from any part of Persia. 



Additions to the Anthropological Collections. — The only 

 Somatology additions made to our somatological collections are 



photographs added to the series of those of the 

 people of Calcutta, with a few of types from the Naga Hills and else- 

 where. We have to thank Mr. A. C. Eleazar of Manipur for some 

 interesting prints. 



Ethnography. — The preparation of Dr. Meerwarth's guide to the 

 collections exhibited in the Museum gallery and illustrating the ethno- 

 graphy of the hills of Assam and of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands 

 has rendered it possible to take stock of our more conspicuous defi- 

 ciencies so far as the tribes of these mountains and islands are con- 

 cerned, and the Trustees of the Indian Museum have invited the co- 

 operation of the Assam Government in making good the deficiencies. 

 With the assistance of the Deputy Commissioner of the Garo Hills, speci- 

 mens of almost all the desiderata from the Garos noted by Dr. Meerwarth 

 have been purchased, and it is hoped that similar arrangements may 

 be made in reference to other tribes. The peoples occupying the hill- 

 tracts of Assam are of very diverse physical characters and represent 

 a la ge number of different stages of culture, from that of the savage 

 Abor and Mishmi tribes in the north to that of the highly civilized 

 Hindu Meitheis of the Manipur valley. They have been grouped toge- 

 ther in our collections and gallery for geographical and comparative 

 reasons. 



As is so often the case in ethnographical collections — the worst 

 represented of all the peoples of the hill-country of Assam was the 

 most highly civilized, namely the Meithies. A very valuable series of 

 the tools, utensils, etc., and of models of the more bulky objects in 

 common use amongst this people was obtained at a small cost on our 

 recent tour by Mr. Sunder Lall Hora, who as a Hindu Was able to get 

 into closer touch with them than the rest of our party. 



Other additions to the ethnogra2)hical collections that may be speci- 

 ally noted are a specimen of the wickerwork, leather-covered coracle 

 used on the streams at the base of the Nilgiri Hills in South India and 

 models of the tutin or ark of buUrushes used by the Saiyad and Gaodar 

 tribes of the Hamun-i-Helmund in Seistan, and of a similar but more 



