1838.] Coins and relics from Bactria. 1047 



comparatively slender scales remaining uninjured, though projecting 

 from the edges of the mass beyond the enveloping deposit of carbonate 

 of lime. Exact information of the circumstances under which fossils are 

 found, though a subject of the highest importance, very rarely receives 

 from collectors much attention, but as it is evident from these remarks 

 that beneath the spot on which the scales of the Garial were sealed, 

 that is, the spot on which they were found, its skeleton might be expect- 

 ed to lie, the locality may deserve further investigation. 



V. — Coins and relics from Bactria, 



It has been already announced in the pages of this Journal, that the 

 extensive collections of coins and other relics made by Mr. Masson, 

 by Sir Alexander Burnes, and Dr. Lord, were on their way to 

 Calcutta, and were likely to fall shortly under the examination of 

 the Editor. He felt it as a great compliment that was paid to 

 his efforts to restore the lost portions of Indian and Bactrian history 

 by means of the coins and inscriptions, still extant in the language 

 and with the superscriptions and dates of the rajas of those times, 

 that collectors in all parts of India were in the habit of submitting to 

 his inspection whatever they lighted upon as unusual, and sought his 

 reading and interpretation of the legends, emblems and inscriptions 

 which baffled the learning and ingenuity of the pandits and antiquaries 

 of the vicinity. As a consequence of the happy discoveries made by 

 him in this line, coins and transcripts of inscriptions came in from all 

 quarters, from Assam and Ava to Bokhara and Sindh, and from 

 Ceylon northward to Nipal. The possession of the rich store of mate- 

 rials thus accumulated gave facilities of comparison and collation 

 which were doubtless a main cause of his success : but the study 

 and exertions required for the satisfaction of these numerous refer- 

 ences to his individual skill, although entered upon with a zeal partici- 

 pated only by those who have achieved much, and feel that there is 

 yet more within their reach which ought to be the result of their own 

 discoveries, were too severe for the climate of India, and the Editor's 

 robust constitution sunk at last under the incessant labour and close 

 attention given to these favorite studies at the very moment when 

 the richest collections of inscriptions, coins, and relics, that had ever 

 been got together in India, were actually on their way to Calcutta as 

 materials for maturing the results he had achieved. The collections of 

 Mr. Masson were forwarded from Bombay in the John Adam which 

 reached Calcutta only in the course of the past December. There are 



