1843.] Asiatic Society. 165 



sand, continues perfectly dry, and even dusty, in the rains, though hefbre it was, 

 with the common pucka floor, most destructively damp. No traces of damp are any 

 where to be seen now. 



Geological and Mineralogical* — We have obtained from the native contractor 

 the two new mineral cases, though, as usual with them, with defects which require 

 to be amended. When I can use them I hope to get on again, and finally, with our 

 mineral arrangements, which now for want of room, it would be almost useless, and 

 next to impossible to do. 



We have to acknowledge here from Mr. W. H. Batten, who is most indefatigable 

 in his labours to assist us, the last portion of that part of Captain Herbert's Journal 

 edited by him. He has also kindly offered to give us a memorandum of (unavoidable) 

 Errata in the Extra Number of the Journal, containing Captain Herbert's Reports, 

 and to remark upon a few of his oversights. We have duly received the volume 

 alluded to in his letter, and at my first leisure, I propose looking out the specimens 

 to this part of the Journal. 



From our liberal contributor Dr. Spilsbury, and through the kind assistance of 

 Ensign Hickey, 1st Native Regiment, we have to announce the arrival of a magnifi- 

 cent fossil elephant's scull, of which until the matrix is cleared off, we can only say 

 that it is Elephantine ; that its width across the temples is about 36 inches; that of 

 our largest recent elephant's scull being only 30. 



The Society is specially obliged to Ensign Hickey, for his attention to this preci- 

 ous relic. He found it in the compound of a bungalow at Kamptee, and learning its 

 history, most kindly brought it down to Barrackpore for us. 



We have received from Government advice, that the box of minerals alluded to 

 in my last is shipped on the Prince of Wales. H. Piddington. 



1st February, 1843. 



The business of the evening having terminated, the Honorable the President then 

 rose, and with much feeling addressed the Members. He stated that it was now up- 

 wards of thirty years since he first joined the Society, then under the presidency 

 of Mr. Henry Colebrooke. He was then a young Member of the Civil Service, and 

 little dreamed that he should one day have the honour of filling a chair in which so 

 many illustrious men had sat in succession. He would not advert to the history of 

 the Society in this long period, during which he had been too severely tasked by 

 public duty to do much which he had desired to do, and which, as a well wisher to 

 the interests and objects of this Society he ought to have done, and much which he 

 should have felt pride and pleasure in doing ; but it was now his painful duty to state 

 that he had placed in the hands of the Acting Secretary his formal resignation of the 

 Presidentship ; which would be duly brought forward at the next meeting by the Com- 

 mittee of Papers. 



After so long a connection with the Society, from which he had, he felt, received far 

 higher honours than he had deserved, he could only now, in bidding it farewell, assure 

 every member of it of his continued interest in its labours, of his hearty wishes for its 

 increasing prosperity, and of his sincere desire to forward its interests in every possible 

 way. 



