APPENDIX. Ixix 



, Mr. Samouelle, who is attached to the entomological department of tlie British Mu- 

 seum, has presented to Sir Alexander Johnston several copies of his work, which contains 

 very useful instructions for the entomologist. The Committee have forwarded these 

 copies to Calcutta, Madras, Bombay and Ceylon. The number and variety of Insects is 

 very great in all tropical climates, but particularly in that of India, and the discovery of 

 the cochineal insect in Mexico, so valuable from its red dye, is a proof of the advan- 

 tage which may accrue to manufactures and commerce fi'om inquiries relative to the 

 nature and properties even of the smallest insects. 



Monsieur Valenciennes, who is now in this country, and is occupied with Baron 

 Cuvier in preparing a valuable work on Fish, has, at the request of the Committee, 

 drawn up a set of instructions, for the guidance of those who may be employed by them 

 in forming collections of fish. Great progress has of late been made in every part of 

 the world in this branch of natural history. Although the celebrated work of Monsieur 

 Lacepede contains a description of no more than one thousand five hundred species 

 of fish ; there are at present specimens of upwards of six thousand species in the cabinet 

 of Natural History at Paris. The number of species found in India is much greater 

 than that which is discovered in Europe. There are only fifty different species of fresh 

 water fish in all the rivers in France, while there are upwards of two hundred and seventy 

 already described by Hamilton in the river Ganges alone. Many species of fish common 

 in the Indian seas form a very lucrative article of trade. The inhabitants of the Mal- 

 diva islands derive great advantage from the extensive trade they carry on with the rest 

 of India in the dried bonita fish, and the shells called cowries which are found in the 

 neighbourhood of those islands. 



The Committee being aware of the value of the Pearl and Chank Fisheries on the 

 northern and eastern coasts of Ceylon, and of the facility of observing the progress of 

 the coral formation, in the gulf of Manar, have directed inquiries to be made into the na- 

 tural history of the pearl oyster and chank shells, and into the process by which the 

 coral is formed, and by which it becomes so powerful an agent in producing very exten- 

 sive banks in that as well as in other parts of the Indian seas. 



oth. Tlie Architecture, the Sculpture, the Ancient Inscriptions and the Paintings of India. 



With respect to the Architecture of India, the Committee are about to have translations 

 made of the works which describe the Hindoo, the Buddhic, and tlie Mahomedan systems 

 of architecture. The work which contains an account of the first system is in Sanscrit, 

 and is called the Silpa Sastra ; Col. Tod has four and Sir Alexander Johnston has five 

 books of this work. The work which contains an account of the second is in Pali and 

 Cingalese, and is also called the Silpa Sastra, and Sir Alexander has a considerable 

 portion of it. The work which treats of the third system is understood to be in one 

 of the libraries in Spain, and is said to contain an account of the systems of Saracenic 

 or Moorish Architecture, which prevailed in the Moorish Kingdoms of Granada, Se- 

 ville, and Cordova, in those of Africa, and Asia Minor, and in those of Tartary and 

 India. The Committee being desirous of illustrating these systems by drawings and 



