98 
THE INDIAN MUSEUM: 1814—1914. 
outlying islands in the R.I.M.S. ^ Ephinstone ’ : he was thus 
able to study the condition of, and make collections in Table 
Island, East Island and Landfall Island, and still later in the 
season, he again left the ship and made a tour with Colonel 
Bingham, the head of the Burma Forest Department, through 
the Salween Hill Tracts. 
During the next two seasons the millieu was again the 
Andaman sea, and shore-collecting was carried on on Table 
Island and Long Island, the latter being one of several 
islands in the northern group of the Moscos Archipelago ; in 
1897- 98, and in the Amherst district of the Burma coast in 
1898- 99. 
In the year 1898 the Trustees of the Indian Museum 
published the first of that series of comprehensive mono¬ 
graphs dealing with the various groups of Indian marine 
animals, that has made the name ^ Investigator ’ so famous 
in zoological literature. The survey had been in progress 
now for over twenty years, and as a result of the work done 
during this period a magnificent collection had been accumu¬ 
lated. The harvest truly is ready, but the labourers are 
few. Indeed, wfith the exception of Alcock in Calcutta and 
Henderson in Madras, there was no one in India capable of 
working out the collections, and it consequently became 
necessary to make a search in other countries for specialists, 
“ Those that, eye to eye, shall look 
on knowledge.and in their hand 
Is nature like an open book.” 
The first of these ‘ Investigator ’ monographs was pub¬ 
lished in 1898, dealing with the Madreporaria, and was by 
Alcock himself; the following year saw the completion of 
three more such volumes, these were '' The Deep-Sea Ophiu- 
roidea” by R. Koehler and ‘‘The Deep-Sea Fishes” and 
“ The Deep-Sea Brachyura,” both by Alcock. This last was 
the first of a series of monographs from the same pen dealing 
with various groups of the Crustacea. In October 1899, the 
‘ Investigator ’ left Bombay to carry out an extensive survey 
in the region of the south coast of India. On this occasion 
she carried Captain McArdle, who had succeeded to the post 
of Surgeon-Naturalist on Anderson’s retirement. This region 
