x Report. 



a result, the Council consider, creditable to the vigilance and attention 

 of the resident sergeant, Mr. Halagan, whose services they consider of 

 proved value to the Society. 



Natural History. 



In the Department of Natural History numerous additions have been 

 made to the Society's collections, most of which have been described 

 in the Reports of the Curator Mr. Blyth, whose regularity of attend- 

 ance and remarkable industry the Council consider deserving of favour- 

 able notice. It is however a subject of great regret to the Council, and 

 of complaint on the part of numerous members, that no Catalogue exists 

 of any part of the collections under Mr. Blyth's care. The Executive 

 officers of the Society have at the instance of the Council repeatedly 

 urged this deficiency on Mr. Blyth's attention, but as yet without result. 

 The Council now advise that the Curator be formally instructed to 

 prepare a descriptive Catalogue without further delay, and submit the 

 same by monthly portions through the Section of Natural History, to 

 the Council, and the Society at large. It is further recommended that 

 Lord Arthur Hay and Dr. Walker be elected members of the Section 

 of Natural History, and that the Section be invited to report monthly 

 on the progress made in the Catalogue, as well as on any other matters 

 of interest in their department. 



An application has been received from Mr. Blyth since the Decem- 

 ber meeting, in which he seeks a recommendation in his behalf to the 

 Ilon'ble the Court of Directors in support of his claim for increase of 

 pay, and for a retiring pension, after a certain period of additional 

 service. 



Without entering on discussion as to Mr. Blyth's particular services, 

 the Council submit his request to the consideration of the Society at 

 large. It must be admitted, that for any scientific man capable of dis- 

 charging the duties on which Mr. Blyth is employed, and performing 

 these with activity and zeal for the advancement of science and the 

 improvement of the collections of a public Institution, the salary of 

 250 Rupees is a very inadequate compensation. But the Council can- 

 not but regard the present as an inauspicious period to address the 

 Hon'ble Court in furtherance of any pecuniary claim. The diversion 

 of the Oriental grant to so large an amount as has but lately been 



