INTRODUCTION. 
13 
officers of the Geological Survey, whose contributions are of 
abiding value, I mean Ferdinand Stoliczka and William 
Blanford. 
In the fifth place, we are indebted to several of our 
officers for the contribution of valuable specimens to our 
collections. Two of our Superintendents, Dr. Anderson and 
Dr. Alcock, accompanied military or political expeditions 
beyond the frontier as doctors and naturalists, the former on 
two expeditions to Yunnan in 1868 and 1875, and the latter 
on the Pamir Boundary Commission in 1896; while our 
Assistant Superintendent, Mr. Kemp, joined the Abor Ex¬ 
pedition of 1911 in the sole capacity of naturalist. These 
scientific workers made the fullest use of their exceptional 
opportunities, and the collections thus secured have proved 
to be of unique value; while the increased facilities for 
scientific tours latterly afforded to the members of our 
zoological staff has helped us greatly to make notable addi¬ 
tions to our collection, more particularly of aquatic animals. 
When we turn to our geological collections,* we find that 
they have been derived mainly from two sources. We have, 
in the first place, specimens collected by the members of the 
Asiatic Society of Bengal in the old days, and in the second 
place, the specimens collected by the officers of the Geological 
Survey since its foundation in 1851. The history and de¬ 
velopment of this department have proceeded generally on 
the same lines as those of the zoological collections. But there 
is this fundamental difference between the two cases, that the 
geological collections represent the result of a continuous 
policy supported by a comparatively large scientific staff, 
and, as a consequence, the geological collections are even 
more adequately representative of the Indian Empire and its 
frontiers than the zoological collections. I must not, 
however, venture upon even a superficial survey of the 
contents of the geological collections, as that would practi¬ 
cally imply an attempt to write a history of the operations of 
the Geological Survey of India during the last sixty years. 
I In the Geological Section of the Museum the Trustees merely possess 
visiting powers, which they assumed in 1910. 
