420 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [No. 5. 



upon the Geological and Physical map of India, prepared by Mr. 

 Greenough, which had been forwarded by the Government of Ben- 

 gal, with a request that the Asiatic Society should give effect to the 

 wishes of the Court of Directors, returning the map with such 

 information as they might possess bearing upon its accu racy* have 

 considered the questions referred to them, and now beg to submit 

 their report. 



The despatch of the Court of Directors states, that this map has 

 been " compiled by Mr. Greenough from such materials as he has 

 been able to collect," and your Committee would most fully acknow- 

 ledge the great labour of research and the careful compilation 

 which this map evinces. They cannot but remark, however, that it 

 is not only customary but very desirable that in such cases the 

 principal sources of information which have been taken advantage 

 of, the special authors or observers consulted, and the general cha- 

 racter of the data so compiled, should be fully stated. They be- 

 lieve that this is even more largely requisite with regard to a country 

 like India, concerning the geology of which so little is known, than 

 with regard to the more closely investigated districts of Europe. 



No memoir or report has accompanied the map. Tour Committee 

 is aware that an abstract of Mr. Greenough's communication to the 

 British Association for the advancement of Science at their meeting 

 in 1854, when this map was first presented, has been published in 

 the reports of that association \ and a reference to this short abstract 

 has more fully convinced them of the important omission which 

 has occurred in not supplying a copy even of these few words of 

 explanation along with the map. 



It appears obvious also, that the compiler has had the benefit of 

 MS. reports and communications, inasmuch as several statements > 

 sometimes of startling importance, have been embodied in this map, 

 which your Committee is not aware have ever before been published 

 and which, they believe, would never have remained uncontradicted 

 had they been so. Your Committee is altogether unable to say 

 what value should be attached to such statements, but were they to 

 judge from the analogy of other similar geological statements in 

 this country, they would be disposed to rank them as nothing 

 better, if not something even worse, than conjecture. 



