=~, eee 
1923. ] Material jor Hamilton-Buchanan’s Fishes. 125 
the persons elsewhere noted, others as we have seen were depos- 
ited by him in the India House, and still others were left in 
India. However, it is reasonably certain that all his notes 
and drawings existed in duplicate. These, after the fashion of 
notes made by many scientific men today, may possibly have 
consisted of rough notes and drawings made in the field and 
of more finished and permanent ones intended for preservation. 
At any rate there were duplicates made. 
We first learn of these in the preface to the volume on 
Dinajpur published along with“ Gleanings in Science” by 
Herbert at Calcutta in 1833 (see this later). In the preface to 
this volume, which seems entirely unknown to all students of 
Buchanan’s work (including Hunter and Day), we read on 
p.vi of the preface that : 
‘The original records [of Buchanan’s exploratory work in 
Bengal}, occupying twenty-five folio volumes in manuscript, 
were transmitted by the Indian Government to the Honour- 
able Court of Directors, a copy of the whole having been 
previously made and deposited in the office of the Chief 
Secretary at Calcutta. Duplicates of [all] the drawings and 
maps, however, where unfortunately not preserved with the 
rest, probably from the difficulty at that time of getting 
them executed in India. It is a matter of surprise’ and re- 
gret that these valuable documents were not given to the 
public when stamped with the interest of originality and 
immediate applicability to the actual circumstances of the 
districts, and when they would have proved of great utility 
to the public officers of Government.” 
These volumes of manuscript notes and drawings seem to 
have been put in charge of the Asiatic Society of Bengal to be 
published in its Journal as the successor and continuation of 
“‘ Gleanings in Science ,” in connection with which the Dinajpur 
section had appeared. (This, however, was never done, it may 
be said parenthetically.) Actually and physically they were 
in the Library of the Botanical Garden at Calcutta, to which 
they had been transmitted by Buchanan before his departure 
in 1815 as noted above. : 
McClelland (1839) had heard of these drawings but had 
Supposed them to be the originals of published figures and had 
paid little attention to them. However, in 1836, while finish- 
ing his monograph on the ‘Indian Cyprinidae” he made in- 
quiry about them and received from Dr. Wallich a collection of 
150 beautifully done and for the most part unpublished draw- 
ings of fishes with their specific names written on the margins 
in Buchanan’s own handwriting, so that there was no difficulty 
found in referring them to descriptions in the ‘ Gangetic Fishes 
Further investigation at the Botanical Garden in 1838 brought 
to light two other folio volumes of drawings on general zoolog- 
