1842.] Asiatic Society. 583 



Read a letter from Mr. D. Ross, offering for the acceptance of the Society an old 

 mineral glass case. 



Read letter from the Honorary Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society, London, of 

 the 4th December 1841, conveying thanks of the Royal Society for five numbers 

 (109 to 113) of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 



Read the following letter from J. H. Batten, Esq., of 8th February, 184)2 : — 



My dear Torrens, Almorah, February 8, 1842. 



Having returned to Almorah, I lost no time in sending off an instalment of the Her- 

 bert MSS. to the Asiatic Society, and accordingly on 6th instant I despatched by 

 dak to your address, a packet containing two neatly written vols, which can at once be 

 printed off. These vols, contain a Journal of Herbert's visit to the lower ranges of 

 Sirmoor, and the low country and hills about Bark and Roopur, below the Soobathoo 

 mountains, to the Terrai east of the Jumna, belonging to the Suharunpore Zillah, 

 to the Dehra Doon, and thence crossing the Ganges along the edge of the Bijnore, and 

 Moradabad and Pilibheet Terrai, to that of Kumaon, and to Bhamouree Pass, and 

 thence by the Bheemtal route to Almorah. Captain Herbert stayed at Almorah a 

 whole summer, and recorded observations. Thence his Journal shews his tour in 

 a NNE. direction towards the Juwakee Pass, (Oonta Dhoora,) and the Snowy range 

 from which flows the Goree river, one of the main feeders of the Goggra river. 

 Before reaching Melum, Herbert fell ill, and his Journal ends. 



I have three other vols, of Manuscript. These are all badly written, and parts of 

 them are very obscure. One of the vols, is written topsy-turvily, i. e. one set of 

 observations are recorded on one side of a page, and another set on the other, and 

 large lacunte intervene. Luckily this volume relates to Kumaon, and British 

 Gurhwal, tracts with which I am intimately acquainted, and my local knowledge 

 enables me to decypher the names of places, and connect the threads of the narrative. 

 I assure you that nobody at Calcutta can possibly interpret the volume in question. 

 I therefore, propose to edit it myself, only asking time, say, to the close of the rains, 

 for the work. James Prinsep gave up the task in despair, and I would not keep the 

 vol. in question for a day, if I thought that his successor in Calcutta could really 

 make any thing out of the MS. This vol. also contains Captain Manson's continu- 

 ation and completion of the Journal which Herbert discontinued from illness, and 

 the tale is thus carried on from where Herbert stopped, to Melum and Oonta Dhoora 

 Pass, (a highly interesting tract which I have myself visited,) and back over the 

 hills to Almorah. This part can be separately transcribed by me now, (i. e. 

 before the rains,) and sent to the Society. In its present state I defy any one, who 

 has not been at every spot named, to decypher the words, and to fill up the gaps 

 caused by moths and white ants. 



The 2nd vol. contains a Journal by Capt. Manson, (Herbert's then Assistant, now 

 Commissioner with Bajee Rao,) of a tour from Almorah to the outposts at Petorah 

 Gurh and Lohooghat, and thence through the hills nearest the plains, to Bheemtal. The 

 writing in this vol. has become very obscure from time and the ravages of insects, 

 but I hope, with the aid of my map and local knowledge, to decypher the whole of this 

 little narrative. In this vol. as in the others, there are double sets of numbers for the 



