Asiatic Society. 147 



Historical Account of Discoveries in Asia, from the earliest 

 Ages to the present Time. By Hugh Murray, F.R.S. E. With 

 Maps. 3 vols. Svo. 21. 2s. 



Preparing for Publication. 

 Select Cabinet of Natural History, with an Account of the 

 Silkworm, and an elegant Method of obtaining very exact and 

 pleasing Representations of Plants. By the late Dr. Shaw, F.R.S. 

 Principal Naturalist of the British Museum. 



Ariconensia : or, Archaeological Sketches of Ross and its Vici- 

 nity. By the Rev. T. Fosbrooke. 



XXIV. Proceedings of Learjied Societies. 



ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



LIn the 8th of January, The. Marquis of Hastings in the chair, 

 a letter from Mr. Moorcroft was read, announcing, that having 

 learnt that there were four large sheets of copper, covered with 

 small but deeply engraved characters, deposited at Punk-hesur, 

 a dependency of Budree Nat'li, and midway between the temple 

 and Joshee Mut'h (the place wiience Mr. Moorcroft's letter was 

 dated), and said to contain the history of the temple and the 

 tenets of the Budha faith, he had succeeded in borrowing them 

 from the high priest of Budree Nat'h to be sent to Calcutta, on 

 a promise that, when copied, they should be returned, and that 

 within eighteen months. He was induced to borrow them, to 

 avoid the risk of errors in copying them, likely to occur from the 

 inscriptions being in a language wholly unknown to the Brah- 

 mins in attendance at the temple. 



i^ [We have given a place to this notice in our pages, though 

 it has as yet led to no result, for the purpose of offering a sugges- 

 tion or two to gentlemen who find themselves circumstanced like 

 Mr. Moorcroft ; or, perhaps even worse, by not being able to 

 borrow the plates. On such an occurrence, an impression from 

 the plate will often be found preferable to any hasty copy : thus, 

 in our old churches have been found «nany monumental plates, 

 with inscriptions, from some of which we remember to ha\ e seen 

 impressions that were printed in the same manner as copper- 

 plates, under the direction (if we rightly remember) of that ve- 

 teran in typography, the well known John Niciiols, esq. An- 

 other method is to take an impression from them in the manner 

 of letter-press or wood-cuts, by daubing them over carefully with 

 (for want of printer's ink) any kind of oil paint, and then press- 

 ing ou them a sheet of moistened white paper : if a printing- 



T 2 j)rcs3 



