Annual Address. ~ [ February, 1905. 
have been cleaned, re-stretched and varnished. Fresh frames were 
selected by the late President, the Hon. Mr. Bolton, in London, and 
have recently arrived. The pictures are now being placed in their 
new frames and will be re-hung, when the repairs to the building 
are completed, and re-arranged so as to show to better advantage. 
The expense has been great, but the renovation should suffice for 
many years. 
The Report shows that the list of the Society’s members has 
increased so as to stand now at a higher number than it has ever 
recorded in the past. This is of good augury for the future, and 
we trust that among the new members many will contribute not 
only their interest in the Society’s business, but also the results 
of travels and inquiries. The inquiries that were open to members 
in the Society’s early days were many and wide, and offered all the 
attraction and interest that newly-discovered fields possess, where all 
information is welcome ; but the conditions of research have greatly 
altered now. In the settled Provinces of India, no doubt, the har- 
vest of investigation has been freely reaped, and what more is to be 
gathered becomes rather the work of specialists and experts. The 
field of Indian investigation has been surveyed and described, and 
the work that remains is for those who can bring minds, unbur- 
dened with other demands and replete with knowledge, to the eluci- 
dation of the problems and difficulties that have arisen out of the 
general survey. Yet much valuable ethnological information still 
awaits the gathering among the ruder tribes, especially in the outly- 
ing Provinces. To members who have such opportunities the 
ethnological side of the Society’s researches offers ample scope for 
investigation, and if they will make careful and systematic notes 
about those tribes and their languages, customs and religion, they 
can supply facts of real interest and value, as regards both the early _ 
conditions of such tribes and also the changes that are being work- 
ed among them by the influence of Hinduism. 
-I will conclude by mentioning some matters of interest which 
le outside the Society, but in which members have taken or are 
taking a part. 
A Buddhist Sanskrit Appendix was compiled to Rai Sarat 
Chandra Das’ Thibetan Dictionary under the auspices of the 
Government, and the Government has recently placed it in the cap- 
able hands of M. de La Vallée Poussin in Belgium, in order that it 
may receive a finishing revision from a European scholar. 
The Archeological Department of Government has published 
its first annual volume. It covers the whole ground of such 
research and sets out most interesting discoveries with a wealth of 
detailed information. 
A book of great interest has lately been published by Mr. Vin- 
cent Smith on the early history of India from B.C. 600 to the Mo- 
hammedan conquest. It brings the latest discoveries to elucidate 
that long and most important period, arid will be of signal service to 
students in this country. Prof. Thibaut has published in the series 
26 
