INDIAN CYPRINID^. 



259 



with Indian species collected by Messrs. Duvaucel, Jaquemont, and De- 

 Lessert, but I doubt if any of our British museums contain many of the 

 commonest species of the Ganges, 



Natural history is now assuming a station so important in the highest 

 scale of intellectual pursuits, that any remarks at all calculated to impress on 

 the minds of those who are connected with missions into new countries 

 a lively sense of the interest that attaches to its most minute details, will 

 not, we may be assured, be taken amiss. Information however carefully 

 collected on such occasions as those referred to, becomes comparatively use- 

 less when unaccompanied with specimens of the things to which it relates. 

 We should ever recollect that the easiest and best way to promote our 

 own fame, and contribute at the same time to the advancement of natural 

 history, is by making collections, nor are we without examples of the 

 highest awards having been, though somewhat prematurely, conceded to 

 collectors. Nevertheless, to render collections of the highest degree of real 

 value in the present advanced state of science, those who make them should 

 gather at the same time as much information as possible regarding the 

 circumstances under which the various objects comprised in them live, or 



assistance, I will rather entreat your aid in the class of Insects which will next succeed in the 

 ' Cabinet of Natural History.' My cabinet is remarkably deficient in the entomology of India, parti- 

 cularly among the smaller and less showy species. The best way of preserving Beetles or coleopter- 

 ous insects as well as spiders is by putting them into spirits, all other insects should be stuck upon 

 cork." Common bazar spirits answers the purpose of preserving insects very well, if it be strong 

 enough to burn, which it would be well to try always before trusting to it, and instead of cork 

 remarkably light and convenient trays may be made of a common species of Aeschi/nomene, called 

 in Bengal Sola, and may be made, so that a number of them fit into a box. The paste with 

 which the Sola is fastened might be poisoned, and a little camphor rolled up in thin paper, 

 placed in each tray as a security against ants. I shalf be happy to afford my aid to any friends 

 of science in India, by forwiu'diiig any collections tluit may be eutnisted to me for tlie eminent 

 persons who have applied to us. 



