Introduction. 



i 



scientific ardour supported him in maintaining against the most depressing 

 obstacles. 



That nothing came of this memorial is due probably in some measure to 

 the movement which commenced in 1857 for transferring our collections to 

 an Imperial Museum, but mainly to the great convulsion which shook our 

 empire in that year. I find no record in our Proceedings of any reply 

 having been made to our recommendation, and the negociations for the 

 foundation of the new museum were not resumed for some three years. 



Blyth made a short tour in the K"W. Provinces in July, 1856. He 

 spent some sis weeks in Lucknow, Cawnpore, Allahabad, and Benares. Oude 

 had just been annexed, and the sale of the Royal Menagerie at Lucknow 

 had been determined on. The tigers were the finest caged specimens in the 

 world, and to one who understood their value in the European market, the 

 inducement to buy and ship the animals was irresistible. A German friend 

 joined in the speculation, and found the necessary funds. Blyth was to do 

 the rest, and as no competitors offered, he bought the bulk of the collection 

 for a trifle. Eighteen magnificent tigers were sold at 20 rupees (£2) a head ! 

 Some casualties occurred on the passage down the river; but his collection, 

 when exhibited in Calcutta, contained sixteen tigers, one leopard, one 

 bear, two cheetas, three caracals, two rhinoceroses, and a giraffe, which carried 

 a saddle and was daily ridden. Difiiculties unfortunately occurred in finding 

 ships for the transport of the animals, and their detention in Calcutta caused 

 further casualties and heavy charges, which his partner would not face. 

 The speculation collapsed, but one of the tigers which reached England 

 realized £140. 



In December, 1857, Blyth had the misfortune to lose his wife. His 

 short married life had been of the happiest, and the blow fell heavily on 

 him. His letters to his sister for the early months of 1858 are painful to 

 read. The shock proved too much for him, and brought on a serious attack 

 of illness ; it threatened paralysis of the heart, and he seems to have been 

 subject to partial returns of similar attacks for the rest of his life. His 

 health too suffered much from the isolation imposed on him by his straitened 

 means, and from want of proper exercise. Some distraction for his thoughts 

 was luckily afforded at this time by the opening up of a new fauna in the 

 Andaman Islands, which Dr. Mouatt had been sent to report on before their 

 occupation as a penal settlement. To this Eeport Blyth contributed an in- 

 teresting chapter on the Zoology of the Islands, so far as it was then known. 

 The China expedition of 1860 was considered both at home and in India 

 a good opportunity for obtaining information regarding the natural history of 



