6 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XV, 
when he fell a prey to that terrible fever epidemic which rav- 
aged this part of the desert after the rains. The fever dis- 
abled him for over two and a half months, and it was only on 
December 15th that he rejoined my service. As I had previ- 
ously realized that a single explorer was not sufficient for a 
State of so vast a territory as Bikaner, I soon found that my 
difficulties were enormously increased by the temporary loss 
of the only man I had, and lost no time in looking for two ad- 
ditional explorers. -These, however, could not be found until 
-Karana of Mathaniya. It is now proposed to keep all the 
three explorers working simultaneously not only in order to 
A 
tember and October, after which the post of a copyist was 
definitely abolished as it imposed upon me a continuous surveil- 
lance and in spite of all my efforts would never give satisfactory 
results. Following a suggestion by Sir George A. Grierson, I 
have now made arrangements for the acquisition of a rotogra- 
phical apparatus, which will enable me to copy manuscripts in 
facsimile, thereby saving time and avoiding errors of amanu- 
enses. 
1 See ogress Report, etc.” for 1916, in Journ. As. Soc. of Be., 
vol. xiii (N.S.), 1917, pp. 195-6. r 
