810 ■ Asiatic Society. [No. 128. 



six coloured Views. The following letter, addressed by our Secretary to Government, entreating its 

 assistance in the search for this invaluable document, will sufficiently explain its importance, and 

 it is therefore needless to dilate farther upon it here. 



To G. A. Bushby, Esq. 



Secretary, General Department. 

 Sir,— The Committee of Papers of the Asiatic Society of Bengal desire me respectfully to state 

 for the information of Government, that after upwards of eighteen months of persevering search, 

 five volumes of Notes and Field Books, relative to Captain Herbert's Geological and Mineralogical 

 Survey of the Himalayas, have been recovered ; and to this they have now to add also, the discovery 

 of the Manuscript of his detailed Geological Report. 



2. And from the title page to this Manuscript they further learn, that it was accompanied by a 

 Geological Map and six coloured Views, which appear to have been sent in to Government 

 with it. 



3. The importance of the recovery of this great mass of Scientific Knowledge, which with the 

 extensive collection in the Society's rooms are the fruit of this costly survey, they will not dilate 

 upon ; but they beg earnestly to bring to the notice of Government, the immense value, both 

 scientific and strictly financial, of the Geological Map could it be also recovered ; and in confirmation 

 of this opinion they may refer to the vast labour and expense which for the last twenty or thirty 

 years past, has been bestowed, both in Europe and in America, upon Geological Surveys and Maps 

 of various countries: (and especially of England and Scotland,) under the full conviction of the 

 immense political advantages which have been, and are to be eventually derived from them. 



4. They trust then, that under these convictions, and with the hope that this really national loss, 

 (for such it would strictly be both to India and to England,) may be yet averted by the recovery of 

 this valuable document from amongst the archives of Government, they therefore respectfully 

 request, that strict search may be ordered in the records of the General and Political Secretariats, 

 the Surveyor General's Office and any others, for any kind of Geological Maps, Sketches or Survey 

 by the late Captain Herbert or other persons. The date of his Manuscript Report is 1826. 



Museum, (Signed) H. Torrens, 



1st July, 1842. Secretary, Asiatic Society. 



I may however be permitted to add that, from the great talent, untiring industry, clear and 

 patient detail of facts, and absence of all leaning to hypothesis which distinguished so greatly our 

 lamented associate, Captain Herbert, we may fairly hope, that if the Map is recovered, the Society 

 at no distant day may have the satisfaction of doing full credit to the liberality of Government in 

 the outlay for this costly Survey, and ample justice to his memory. 



Amongst the old papers of the Physical Committee, we have also discovered a valuable one by 

 Dr. John Adam on the Geology of Bundlecund, and this has enabled me to recognise Catalogue 

 No. V. of our Geological collections, as being the series pertaining to this very paper, which is 

 now in the press for the Journal. When I state that it extends from Mirzapoor to Jubbul- 

 poor, giving thus an excellent Geological outline for that distance, its value will be easily under- 

 stood. 



I have again renewed every search for the Catalogue relative to Captain Pemberton's Geological 

 Series from his Bootan Mission, to which we have no clue, but a very complete set of numbers on 

 the specimens. Some hints from his Assistant, Captain Blake, lead me to hope, that the references, 

 as in the case of Captain Herbert's collection, may be dispersed throughout his Note and Field 

 Books, and I have written to Major General Macleod on the subject. We have no contributions to 

 announce for this month. 



H. PlDDINGTON, 



Cur. Mus. Eeon. Geol. ' 

 Museum, 30/A June, 1S42. 



