21 
some other difficulties had been disposed of, instructions were conveye o o icz 
appointing him to the post of naturalist to the Yarkand Mission. 
He at once commenced to make the necessary preparations, and clear o an ears o ^ w 
by completing the publication of sundry papers which were passing throug 1 P 
These included the final fasciculi of his great work on the Cretaceous Fossils ot bout it em 
India, which, as already stated, contains nearly 1,500 large quarto pages of letter pi ess ant ^ 
plates, and seyeral papers on reptiles, arachnids, mollusca, and insects, which weie pu is ie 
in Volume XLII of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. See Nos. bo, Ob, u, 
68, 69. In a paper on the Passalidce which he read before the Society he took occasion 
describe the principles of philosophic classification advocated by Dr. Kaup, and the system 
of rational nomenclature proposed by Prof. Rartwig of Utrecht. The former, frith its mil 
of five species to each genus, encountered some hostile criticism, to which those n io vcie 
present will remember Stoliczka replied with considerable energy and warmth. While not 
exactly supporting the system himself, he claimed for it, on account of the lespect c ue o i 
inventor, careful consideration and examination by the application of test cases. . t may ie 
added that an obituary notice of Dr. Kaup appears side by side with that of Dr. Stoliczka in the 
Ibis for 1874, and the notice there of this artificial system of classification is not favourable.. 
Regarding the above-mentioned work on the Cretaceous fossils, Dr. Oldham, in his presi- 
dential address to the Asiatic Society,* said “These volumes form an invaluable record, 
“ descriptive of one of the finest and most extensive collections . from a single formation 
“ which has ever been brought together, and have been prepared with a fulness of Ulus ra- 
“ tion and a widely embracing accuracy of description which render them essential to the 
palaeontologist and almost equally essential to the recent concliolo 0 ist. . 
“ We desire to acknowledge the liberality with which the Government of the country las 
“ provided the funds necessary to enable us to double the quantity issued in the year oi t is 
series descriptive of Indian fossils, and we rejoice the more in this because we ica 
“ convincing testimony that the loving labours of my colleague Stoliczka are rea y appre- 
ciated. I, who can speak from experience of his unfailing eneigy, of his uu mn a ° L 
and marked accuracy, and of his wide range of knowledge of all the carings 0 
“ subject, know full well the immense labour which these works represent, the ng 
scientific value of that labour, and the great interest which they have excitet amon 0 
“ paleontologists of Europe. But more than all this, I know, too, and appreciate fully tne 
unswerving loyalty to his task which the author lias invariably shown, an 
undeviating conscientiousness and devotion which he has brought to eai on 
accomplishment.” , . . , , , • 
Early in Mav information reached Stoliczka that the Government had appointed him 
naturalist to the mission as above stated, and on the 17th of that month he left Calcutta 
but before following him on that journey, from which he never returned, it will be convenient 
to say a few words as to the materials which exist for giving an account of this portion o 
lii 
' sSy after the return of the mission and the arrival of the baggage at Simla in October 
the writer was deputed to receive over and take charge of the collections wluch W*- 
by Stoliczka. Many packing cases had to he sorted over and their contents roil h y 
classifiedf in order that the several divisions of the collection might be made over to those 
w ho should he appointed to work them out. The results of their respective jitoouisaregivcn 
io Y, ‘ rt "‘ , ’ ~ “ p “ “ 4 
(subsequently sent to Vienna to Dr. Stoliczka’s brother, his nearest sui viving ie a ive 
