28 Presidenfs Address, , [Feb. 



members. We ouglit to have some permanent organization for the purpose 

 of seeking it out, and performing it. And with this view, I should be dis- 

 posed to say that in connection with our Natural Science Committee, a Sub- 

 Committee should be formed, which should take upon itself the duty I have 

 indicated, and in particular should make an annual report to the Society. 



In Ethnology, the work of Colonel Dalton is in the course of being 

 printed, at the expense of the Grovernment of Bengal, under the superinten- 

 dence of this Society. Indeed I may say that it is all but finished : it will 

 probably be published in March, and cannot fail, I believe, to prove a most 

 valuable contribution to science. We all know how intimate an acquaintance 

 Colonel Dalton possesses with the various outlying races of Bengal, an 

 acquaintance formed dm-ing long-continued service in what I may term 

 frontier districts of this Presidency. His qualifications for the task, which 

 he undertook, of compiling and editing the ethnological information to be 

 gathered from many scattered official papers and other sources, were incon- 

 testibly of a high order, and if he had confined himself to this, the results 

 of his labours would doubtless have been still valuable. But he has done 

 much more : the bulk of his work is description, of a vivid and interesting 

 character, drawn by his own pen, upon the foundation of personal 

 observation. 



Dr. Oldham and Mr. Blochmann, who kindly undertook on the part of 

 the Society to superintend the printing of the book, have discharged that 

 duty in a way to deserve jowr best thanks. The illustrations have been 

 admirably executed ; and would of themselves, even dislocated from the 

 letter press, constitute an important publication in this department of 

 natui-al science. 



Dr. Anderson's ' Report on the Expedition to Western ' Yunan' very 

 lately published, gives us a complete and clear account of the adventures of, 

 and the geographical results efifected by, Major Sladen's exploring party in 

 1868. A further report will follow, describing the results of Dr. Anderson's 

 own labours as naturalist to the exhibition. This narrative forcibly impresses 

 upon us the difficulty and danger of exploring (even under favourable 

 circumstances) a very short distance beyond the limits, to which English 

 authority extends in this part of the world. On first thoughts and in view 

 of the great things which were accomplished by Marco Polo in the 13th 

 century, and by the Jesuits in China in more modern times, it certainly does 

 appear little creditable to our countrj^men that at this day the tract of 

 comparatively-speaking unknown land, which on the west, north and east 

 lies between India and the rest of Asia should be, I may say, so enormous 

 as it is. Dr. Anderson himself remarks — " It does not say much for geogra- 

 " phical enterprize in the East, in recent times, that the Irawaddy, a nver 

 " equalling in magnitude the Ganges of India, should remain unexplored. 



