1841.] Asiatic Society. 35 



< I am at the same time directed to request that the Asiatic Society will furnish this 

 Department with a copy of Dr. Helfer's original list of his Ornithological collec- 

 tions, forwarded to the Secretary to the Society from the Political Department, with 

 Mr. Secretary Prinsep's letter, dated the 24th October 1838. 



< I am, Sir, 

 ' Council Chamber, ' Your obedient servant, 



1 30th December 1840. ' G. A. Bushby, 



' Secretary to Government of India. 



' No. 17~of 1840. 

 ' Our Governor General of India in Council. 



Public Dept. 



' 1st. The first of these letters refers to an application made by Major Hay, 



Reply to Paras. 48 and 49 ^j through the Asiatic Society of Bengal to you, to 

 of letter from the Govern- ■' . , ,, ,. . , . . „-, , , TT . , 



ment of India, dated 21st I purchase a large collection of subjects of Natural History, 



August 1839, No. 26 i f orme( i chiefly in southern Africa, and of which you 



To letter from the Secretary j have justly remarked that it would be better adapted 

 to the Government oflndia, I , ,, ,„ n r, ., ~ r *. ■,. 1 



dated 19th January 1839, ! to tne Museum of Europe than of India, we accordingly 



No ' 2 - J approve of your having declined the purchase. 



2nd. In your letter of the 19th January 1839, you inform us that the collections 

 made by Dr. Helfer in the Tenasserim Provinces have been shipped on the 

 "Madagascar;" a reference to the correspondence accompanying shews that this is 

 not exactly correct. The collections of Dr. Helper and of Mr. Assistant Surgeon 

 Griffiths, which have been received by the " Madagascar," are exclusively Botani- 

 cal, and the other collections were deposited with the Asiatic Society. 



' 3rd. We take this opportunity of expressing to you more fully our wishes on the 

 subject of collections of Natural History made in India, on account of, or under 

 the patronage, of the Government. 



'4th. In our letter of the 18th September 1839, No. 17, Paras. 81 to 87, we replied 

 to the applications which you made in August 1837, and in September 1838, on 

 behalf of the Asiatic Society of Bengal; and we signified our consent to the 

 monthly payment of 200 or 250 rupees to a qualified person to superintend the 

 Museum, with an allowance of 50 rupees a month for the cost of preparing and 

 preserving specimens besides the former allowance for the publication of Oriental 

 works. 



' 5th. "We now call your attention to several points respecting the relation in which 

 the Asiatic Society is placed towards the Company's Museum in England in 

 consideration of this grant. It appears from the public correspondence, as well as 

 from the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, that the collections made by 

 several Deputations and Missions on behalf of Government, which previous to the 

 date of our despatch above mentioned (18th September 1839) were provisionally 

 confided to the care of the Asiatic Society, have been detained in its custody nearly 

 two years, during whidh period no Zoological collections have been received in 

 our Museum from Bengal. 



