15. The Sources of the Material for Hamilton Buchanan’s 
Fishes of the Ganges, the Fate of his Collections, 
Drawings and Notes, and the Use made of his Data. 
By E. W. Goparr, Associate in Ichthyology, American 
Museum of Natural History, New York City. 
INTRODUCTION. 
‘An Account of the Fishes Found in the River Ganges 
and its branches,’’! by Francis Buchanan afterwards Hamil- 
ton, is one of the outstanding works on the fishes of India. 
It is the earliest work on Indian fresh-water fishes as Patrick 
Russell’s ‘* Fishes of Vizagapatam”’ (1803) is the earliest for 
the marine fishes. And it is interesting to note that both 
works are indirectly the outcome of the activities of the old 
Kast India Company, products of the interest in natural 
history of two of its surgeons. 
Recently there have come to me certain facts bearing on 
the sources of Buchanan’s data, and I have been enough 
interested to take the trouble necessary to go into the matter 
fully, Having the facts at hand it has seemed worth while 
making of them a definite record in order even at this late 
day to give Buchanan the credit for good work which has for 
a hundred years been denied him. 
Sources oF BucHANAN’S MATERIAL. 
Francis Buchanan (1762-1829) entered the services of the 
Kast India Company in 1794 as surgeon in the Bengal Esta- 
blishment, and in the next year began his exploratory and 
Survey work on being sent on such a mission to the court of 
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! Edinburgh, 1822, 405 pp., 59 pls. with 97 figs. 4°. 

