4 
an orderly and accessible condition. What was incumbent on 
the Society, was simply to act up to James Prinsep’s recom- 
mendations in providing suitable cases for the preservation of 
the fossils and keeping them separate. That it was under both 
an implied contract and an obligation to do so when it accepted 
the collections and acknowledged their receipt in its printed 
proceedings, no one can deny ; yet it is quite within the truth 
of the facts to state, that the Asiatic Society has broken faith 
with every donor from whom it ever received Indian Fossil 
collections, by the signal neglect with which it treated the 
specimens after they were once housed within its walls. But this 
was not all. There is a pile of rubbish in the yard, known by 
a whimsical name, consisting of ejected materials, such as 
discarded rock specimens, broken corals, &c. It was the practice 
apparently, to pitch or sweep out fossil bones upon this heap. 
Colonel Baker one day disentombed from it, an important por- 
tion of a valuable and cherished Dadoopoor specimen and fitted 
it to the original mass. The valuable and rare specimen of 
the lower jaw of Merycopotamus dissimilis (No. S. 246 of this 
Cat.) together with fragments of the Gigantic Tortoise and 
numerous other fossil bones were found by myself in the same 
heap of rubbish outside ! 
Amidst such alleged disorder and huddling together of 
specimens from different strata of different geographical origin, 
it may be asked how was it possible to make any thing approach- 
ing a satisfactory or reliable Catalogue so far as localities are 
concerned ? The reply is that on this head the Catalogue does 
not profess to be more than approximative ; a great number of 
the assigned localities are simply conjectural. But the following 
circumstances furnished material aid. Besides being well 
acquainted with the ordinary characters and appearance of the 
Sewalik fossils, I was familiar with those of the Perim Island 
specimens, having examined and in part described a large 
collection presented by Capt. Fulljames to the Geological Society 
of London. 1 was familiar also with the first Ava Collection, 
