446 Asiatic Society. [No. 100. 



specimens— many of which they found to be very valuable and in good preservation, 

 but many had suffered from the neglected way in which they had been exposed in the 

 Auction Room. Both gentlemen, however, strongly recommended the Society to 

 make this addition to their Museum, if it could be done for 3000 or 3500 Rupees ; the 

 cost to Captain Hay, to make the collection, had been 26,000. Dr. Grant thought it 

 a great pity that Captain Hay had not come to some resolution of this nature be- 

 fore ; he doubted not Captain Hay paid every farthing of the sum stated for the 

 collection. Dr. G. was in Cape Town when he commenced it. When the ex- 

 pense for the transmission of such specimens to the Society was taken into the 

 account, he thought the Society would do well to give the sum required, and place 

 them in the Museum, for it would cost considerably more to get similar specimens of 

 their own. 



Sir E. Ryan, called the attention of the Meeting to the proceedings held re- 

 garding this collection on their first arrival in India, in 1838. A Committee was 

 formed for the purpose of taking the subject into consideration ; they highly approved 

 of it, and an application was made to Government to furnish the Society with 

 the means of purchasing the collection, but it was refused, on the ground, that 

 specimens of birds, &c. were, of too perishable a nature for a climate like India, 

 but that they may be offered to some Society at home. 



Sir E. Ryan, did not think proper to purchase the collection by raising a sub- 

 scription among the Members, as the object for which the Society was originally 

 established was to obtain only Indian specimens, of which duplicates were to be sent 

 to the Museum of the India House, and the purchase of foreign specimens merely for 

 the purpose of comparison, could not well be done with any good results, unless there 

 was a perfect Museum, and the funds of the Society could not raise it to that . 



Dr. Grant begged to recall what he had before said, as he was then unacquainted with 

 the circumstance now mentioned, and to concur entirely with what had fallen from the 

 President ; but he would in addition beg to suggest to the influential members of na- 

 tive society, that they should step forward, and now that so good an opportunity offers, 

 purchase the collection themselves, and have a Museum attached to one of their in- 

 stitutions, the Hindoo or Medical College, by which means, and a very little outlay, 

 they would save to the country this valuable collection. Mr. E. Stirling proposed that 

 an offer be made to Captain Hay to place the specimens in the Museum at the So- 

 ciety's expense till a purchaser be obtained. Sir E. Ryan said this offer had once 

 been made to Captain Hay, but refused — he however had no objection for its being 

 made again. The proposition was then put and carried nem con. 



Read a letter from Captain Hutton, 37th N. I. dated Candahar 24th May, regard- 

 ing his 1st part of a tour to the Spiti valley, which persons writing anonymously in 

 the public prints had reflected upon in a manner to hurt the author's feelings. 



Captain H. entered at some length into the subject, and expressed his desire to re- 

 fund the advance made to him by the Society for the purpose of the tour, if doubts 

 were entertained as to the mode of his having performed it, or as to the general origi- 

 nality of the information communicated. As no doubts were expressed, it was resolved 

 to decline the offer of refund, and record the Society's sense of the value of the ad- 

 dition made to its Museum, in the Geological specimens procured by Captain Hutton, 

 during the tour in question. 



N. B. The 2nd, 3rd, and last parts of the tour have since been received. 



