On Collections and Museums. 141 



of the poverty of our collection, I may remark, that of one sticking 

 and numerous family, affording probably some hundred species, most 

 of them found in the Indian seas, yet two species only are all we have 

 in our Museum, and these from unknown localities, probably New 

 South Wales. 



As animals of this family have been found in a fossil state, in a bed 

 of sand, reposing beneath the common soil of the Sylhet mountains, 

 under circumstances which we are bound to investigate, the fact may 

 induce those who reside along the coasts above alluded to, to con- 

 tribute their share towards the inquiry, by forwarding specimens of 

 them to our Museum. The dried testa of Echinida, called sea-eggs, 

 are very abundant, I understand from Captain Brown, on the shores 

 of Rambree Island, and all the islands from thence to the Straits, 

 while the living animals usually named sea-hedge-hogs, from the 

 number of spines with which they are covered, may be had from 

 rocks in the same vicinity. The bleached shell is seldom perfect, so 

 that the living animals when put fresh into spirits form the more 

 valuable specimens ; but from the ease with which the former may 

 be collected and preserved^ as well as from their beauty as mere 

 ornaments, they ought to form a portion of every collection, and from 

 the philosophical interest of the subject, they would be a welcome 

 addition to our Museum. 



Enough, I trust, has been said to induce-residents on the Malay coast, 

 and other situations where similar facilities are afforded, to enable 

 the Society to avail itself of the offer of Mr. Lyell, and at the same 

 time to enlarge, or rather form its own collections of Indian species. 



The interest now awakening in Europe regarding the natural his- 

 tory of this country, is calculated to produce a more powerful effect 

 in exciting a spirit of inquiry here, than any arguments that could be 

 urged on the spot. Thus, we have not only a Museum at the India 

 House, now opened for the exhibitions of animals collected in India, 

 but the first philosophers are ready to co-operate with us and aid 

 our inquiries. 



Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 

 For the circumstances that gave rise to the following report, we must 

 beg leave to refer our readers to the Journal of the Asiatic Society, 

 in which the Proceedings of the Meeting of February last are recorded. 

 The peculiarities of the case are simply these, — In May last we were 

 appointed Curator of the Society's Museum on the usual salary of 200 

 Rupees a month. In July, it having been represented by the Secre- 

 tary that the expenditure exceeded the receipts of the Society, when 

 to prevent danger to the institution from this cause, we gave up the 

 salary attached to our office, and continued to discharge the duties on 



