GEOLOGICAL SECTION. 
59 
though small, collection of Siwalik vertebrates; these, to the 
number of about 1500, are exhibited, together with the more 
recent collections made by members of the Geological Survey, 
in the Siwalik Gallery, which now contains over 19,000 
specimens. 
In 1867 a large collection of European rocks and fossils^ 
numbering some 20,000 specimens, was purchased by Dr. 
Oldham, on behalf of the Government of India, from Pro¬ 
fessor von Klipstein of Giessen for the sum of £2,400 and its 
acquisition, together with that of two smaller collections 
in the following year, made the provision of further accom¬ 
modation more imperative than ever. It was not iintil 1875, 
however, that the geological collections belonging to the 
Geological Survey could be moved to the present building in 
Chowringhee; the old quarters in Hastings Street were 
vacated on the 30th September in the same year and on the 
1st January 1877 the new galleries were thrown open to the- 
public. 
In their new quarters the collections rapidly expanded, 
and within a few years the space available was well filled. 
It was some time before a definite system of registering 
specimens was adopted, and the earlier methods were some¬ 
what peculiar and confusing. Each officer selected a serial 
number under which he registered his specimens as he 
brought them in from the field ; thus one specimen only 
might be registered under one number and perhaps even a 
thousand under the next, so that there was no ready means 
of discovering what the total number might be. In 1867 
the present system was adopted, in which each serial number 
or letter includes beneath it about 1000 specimens, so that 
a glance at the last entry will show the approximate number 
of specimens in the collections. There are now in the Museum 
about 11,000 specimens of minerals, over 26,000 of rocks, 
10,000 of microscope slides, and over 112,000 of fossils, 
including besides Indian forms large collections from other 
parts of the world. The collection of meteorites has always 
been one of the most interesting features of the Museum. 
It was started in 1865 by Dr. Oldham with the purchase of 
specimens of 223 falls collected by Mr. R. P. Greg of Man- 
