135 



when its governors, employing competent geologists, shall direct a 

 comprehensive inquiry to be made into the whole of its mineral 

 structure, the result of which must prove to be of the highest na- 

 tional value. Let me not, however, do injustice to the able men who 

 have, from time to time, thrown light on this great subject ; for in 

 Cautley and Falconer we have recognized geologists whose researches 

 in the northern parts have claimed our highest rewai'ds ; whilst 

 Christie, Franklin, Sykes, Malcolmson, Grant and others, have been 

 arduous and successful explorers of the central and southern tracts. 

 Botanical science, warmly fostered by the Indian government, at 

 home and in the East, has flourished under the researches of Wallich 

 and of Royle ; and much indeed even in geological inquiry has been 

 accomplished by the latter, who is about to give us other proofs of 

 his geological powers in a memoir on the Tin Mines of Senasserin. 

 Rejoicing in such progress, I should, however, be better satisfied if 

 a little more public encouragement were extended to our science, and 

 that systematic geological surveys Avere patronized. It was, therefore 

 most gratifying to me to receive the first volumes of the Calcutta 

 Journal of Natural History, instituted by Dr. M'Cleliand ; because 

 it is evident, that a work so ably conducted, and acting upon the 

 intelligent classes in the metropolis of our Asiatic empire, must rouse 

 the Indian government to combine the desultory efforts of a few 

 geologists, who, to their great praise, have acquired their knowledge 

 by their own labours, supported chiefly by the exertions of the la- 

 mented Mr. Prinsep*. The examples of the governments of the 

 United States and of Canada may well be taken as models ; and the 

 truly valuable results which will Ibllow froiri them, must fully satisfy 

 those even who look to science only when it can be brought into 

 useful operation. 



I may here be allowed to express a hope, that our late occupation 

 of Affghanistan, the travels of our .envoys, and the marches of our 

 gallant troops through gorges of such surpassing grandeur, have not 

 been made without obtaining some gleanings of the structure of a part 

 of the globe which we are not likely to be able soon to look upon 

 again. Alas ! these wars, with all their crowning glory, have de- 

 prived us of one on whom we might have depended for some recital 

 of the natural history of those inhospitable defiles. When the adven- 

 turous Burnes explained to us, a few years back, within these walls 

 the outlines of the structure of the wild countries of Bokhara, he 

 taught us what we might expect from him, when he returned from 

 the extensive missions into the lands beyond the Indus, to which the 

 services of his country called him. Cut ofl" in the midst of his bril- 

 liant career, and falling under the daggers of those in whom he placed 

 implicit confidence, we have lost in him, if not the tutored geolo» 

 gist, at least the vivid delineator. of natural phjenomena, whose me- 

 mory Avill ever be held dear to those who had the happiness to know 

 him. Let us hope, however, that some oflicers of the gallant army 

 M'hich has so nobly avenged the death of Burnes and our other 

 slaughtered countrymen, may be able to give us some record of the 

 *■ See also the Madras Scientific Journal. 



