1836.] Catalogue of a Second Collection of Fossil Bones. 179 



fermented and pase'wd, converted opium, when contained in the con- 

 traband article, are to be considered as " foreign matter." I have 

 been in the habit of regarding them as foreign, when the water ex- 

 ceeded 30 per cent., and when inferiority in quality was palpable ; 

 because a different practice would defeat the end, for which the regu- 

 lation was framed, of securing a fair reward to the informer. Under 

 a less strict interpretation of the rule, he would be tempted to double 

 the weight of the seized opium, and consequently his own reward, by 

 adding to it, a sufficient quantity of water, or of bad opium, such as 

 may at all times be clandestinely purchased for a trifle in the poppy 

 districts. 



IV. — Catalogue of a Second Collection of Fossil Bones presented to the 

 Asiatic Society's Museum by Colonel Colvin. 

 [Exhibited at the Meeting of the 6th April.] 



Colonel Colvin's first dispatch consisted of six large chests of fossil 

 bones, in their rough state, attached to the matrix rock, as they were 

 originally brought in from the hills by the native collectors employed 

 by him to dig. They still remain unclassified in the museum, but the 

 detailed examination that has been given to the second dispatch by 

 Lieutenants Durand and Baker, whom experience has already made 

 expert in recognizing fragments, even much mutilated, will materially 

 assist in arranging the former specimens, while it leaves little to be 

 done with the present beyond publishing their catalogue at once for 

 the satisfaction of geologists, and preparing the specimens for the 

 inspection of visitors. There are among them many noble fragments 

 of known animals, which challenge comparison with those of any col- 

 lection in Europe : these it will be a first object to make known by ac- 

 curate drawings or by plaster casts. There are also numerous skulls, 

 jaws, teeth, and bones decidedly new to fossil osteology, but the admira- 

 ble fidelity and scientific knowledge with which the major part of these 

 is now under illustration by Dr. Hugh Falconer and Captain Cautle y, 

 in the Asiatic Researches, from their own, even more extensive, cabinet, 

 supplants the necessity of attempting a full investigation here. All 

 points in which differences from their generic or specific descriptions 

 are recognized, it will be the duty of our curator to bring to notice. 



The synopsis published in the Journal for December last, page 706, 

 comprised the varieties of organic remains, up to that period extracted 

 from the upper deposits of the tertiary strata of the Sivdlik or Sub- 

 Himalaya range of hills. Most of the same are to be found in Colonel 

 Colvin's collection. Some recent additions of a highly interesting 

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