356 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [No. 4. 



The Council submitted reports — 



1 . Recommending that the offer of Dr. Sprenger to edit a Geogra- 

 phical Treatise of the 4th Century of the Hijerah be accepted. 



2. Recommending that the following offers also be accepted, viz. that 

 of Mr. Hall, to edit the Kavaya Darsa of Dandi with the same author's 

 Pas'a Rupaka, that of Lt. Lees, to edit the Nakhbatul Fikr, and that 

 of Mr. Hall, to bring out, in conjunction with Pundit Ramnarain, the 

 text of the Vishnu Purana. 



Regard, however, being had to the existing liabilities of the Oriental 

 Fund, they recommended that the printing of these works be post- 

 poned till next year. 



3. Submitting for the favorable consideration of the meeting, a 

 report from the Natural History Committee, recommending the dis- 

 bursement of Rs. 1500, on cases for the newly arranged Department 

 of Tertiary Fossils, and suggesting that the Society should solicit the 

 aid of Government for paving with Chunar stones the whole of the 

 ground-floor of the Museum. 



The following is the report of the Committee : — 



" In submitting to the Council an application for a grant of money 

 to ensure the preservation of the instructive and valuable series of 

 fossils lately arranged by Dr. Falconer, the Committee of Natural 

 History would suggest to the Council that the present offers a favor- 

 able opportunity for soliciting the aid of Government towards the 

 carrying out of several measures essential to the conservation of the 

 many valuable collections, now forming the museum. 



" The principle of occasional grants to the Society for special pur- 

 poses, is distinctly recognized in the following paragraph of a letter 

 from the Honorable Court of Directors, dated 18th September, 1839. 



" • The independent and useful activity of the Asiatic Society of 

 Bengal during so long a period, entitles it justly to your consideration, 

 and looking to it as the only institution in India, which ojfers any 

 analogy to the great national libraries and museums of Europe, it is a 

 legitimate object of public support. We therefore, approve of the 

 aid and encouragement which you have given. We think, however, 

 that the extent to which you have gone is fully adequate to all pur- 

 poses of public utility. The Society is already in possession of a 

 library and museum of some extent, and the additions that may be 



