as it appears. Perhaps you may be able by your position, to contribute to its adoption by the Asiatic Society. This reminds me of Dr. Goldstueker's desire of becoming a member of the Asiatic Society, and of receiving regularly a copy of the Journal as well as of the Bibliotheca. The subscription might best be paid to Allen and Co. I have the same wish for myself, but am afraid, the expense may be too much for me. Pray, inform me of the amount of the subscription, and whether it is not less expensive to subscribe to the Journal only, which I am anxious to receive regularly. Are there still to be had in India complete copies of the Asiatic Journal? and what is the price? Here we can only procure single numbers, and at a very high price. Nor are the Asiatic Researches anywhere for sale, and if you should find an opportunity of obtaining a complete set, I trust, you will think of me. Professor Brockhaus in Leipzig has charged me with the following commissions for you. He does not think fit under the present circumstances to go on with the publication of the Kathá-Sarit-Ságara, and should feel delighted if you would complete this work in the Bibliotheca Indica. He is also very anxious to obtain a copy of the Bibliotheca. He has, some years ago, sent his edition of the abovementioned work to the Asiatic Society, but has never been informed of its arrival in Calcutta. With regard to the Rámáyana which you once intended to publish, Gorresio has completed his edition of the text, and the Italian translation, notwithstanding the Sardinian discomfiture, is to be continued. On an early occasion I will send you £20 from the Royal Library at Berlin. Dr. Pertz, the Librarian, avails himself, with the sincerest thanks, of the permission of the Asiatic Society to have MSS. copied, and has fixed that sum for the commencement. No further part of the Nirukta by Roth has appeared, but a commentary has been promised. The Sanscrit philosophical books which you so kindly got for me, are very interesting, and ought to be translated. Is nothing done in India for the Yóga philosophy? which until now has been so undeservedly neglected. How is it with the Brihad Devatá of Sonaka? Is no MS. of it to be had in India? In Berlin there is one full of interesting matter, but too incorrect for publication. Likewise Saunaka's Chaturadhyaya and the Pratisákhya to the Atharva are rare MSS. which I should like to possess, if they are obtainable.

Excuse my troubling you with so many wishes. I fear, my letter has become a heap of requests and questions. I shall, however, be well satisfied without your replying to all of them, only let me hear soon again of what you are doing in India for Sanscrit literature.

Ordered that the recommendations of the Oriental Section be adopted, and Dr. Roer be requested to make any suggestion he may think fit with reference to the Society's Agents in London.

10. From R. Watson, Esq., forwarding a slab of flexible Sandstone, presented by Capt. Douglas.

11. From M. l'Abbé J. M. T. Guerin, presenting to the Society a copy of his work on Indian Astronomy.

After some desultory conversation regarding the Society's Museum of Economic Geology, it was moved by Rev. J. Long, seconded by Mr. Mitchell and resolved

That the Council be requested to procure from Mr. Piddington, as Curator of the Museum of Economic Geology, a report of what he has done in that Department during the last twelve months.

The Librarian and the Zoological Curator having submitted their reports, the meeting adjourned.

Confirmed 3rd, August, 1850.

J. W. COLVILE, President.
FLETCHER HAYES, Secretary.

Report of the Curator Museum of Economic Geology for July, 1849.*

Geology and Mineralogy,-We have received from Captain Ommanney, Executive Engineer, 3d Division, a box of specimens, with a paper describing the site at which they were found, which may be thought worth printing in the Journal. From the description given I am inclined to suppose these stones form part of the ruins of some attempt at a barrage of a river for the purpose of irrigation, and that the wells described by Captain Ommanney are those belonging to an ancient subterranean water course, the kannaughts of the Persians, which are more or less known from Affghanistan and Persia to Constantinople, which city is still dependant upon them for much of its supplies of water.

Mr. Wm. Theobald, Junr. has sent us a miscellaneous collection of Indian and European rocks, minerals and fossils, out of which we shall be able to select a number of good ones, either as new varieties or duplicates, for our Cabinets.

* Having been mislaid, this Report was not published along with the proceedings for July, 1849.

+ I do not know of any remains of them described in India, but it is difficult to suppose that the followers of the Mogul Emperors did not bring with them, and practice, the art of constructing these; and that, as here, the attempts often failed by the caprices of our Indian rivers.

Our old and zealous contributor Dr. Spilsbury sends us a large lump of the Magnetic Diorite described in my paper in the Journal for this year. He states also that the discoverer is Captain Jenkins, 10th Madras Infantry.

He mentions also a fine slab of Dendritic Sandstone but this is not yet received* though dispatched a year and a half ago!

He also presents a Hippopotamus' scull from the neighbourhood of Nursinghpoor, but minus the lower jaw; for which he is indebted, he says, to Mr. Cheyne, a Madras Medical Officer; and a portion of the lower jaw of an elephant of a kind totally unlike any of the preceding from the Nerbudda, and which he thinks resembles the E. insignis of Cautley and Falconer.

"It was dug up (he says) at Beltarree Ghat on the Nerbudda, a site from which I sent specimens years ago. Vide As. Jour. Aug. 1834, p. 389. These two specimens were sent in to Captain Elliot, the Deputy Commissioner of Nursinghpoor, and by him placed at my disposal."

Economic Geology.—I have put into the form of a paper for the Journal, my examination of an orange-coloured soil sent from Sikkim by Dr. Campbell, where it is used as a cure for Goitre.

Captain Campbell B. A., Commissary of Ordnance, Saugor, Bundlecund, has sent us a large collection of 128 specimens of rocks and ores, and of 44 specimens of clay of various kinds. These have not yet been examined.

Dr. Spilsbury has also procured for us from Dr. Macintire, Residency Surgeon, Nagpore, specimens of the various Samy stones (see Journal: Proceedings, Jan. 1845,) used in the polishing work of the arsenal there, as Country Emery." The following is an extract from Dr. Macintire's chit sent by Dr. Spilsbury.

66

"By this day's banghy I send you a packet of small specimens of the different kinds of Samy stone procurable. I have numbered them 1, 2, 3, 3,

*

*

3, 4, 5, 6, so that you can select those you require. I can then send you any quantity. The first five specimens are found in a quarry at a village named "Pohorah" about 60 miles to the right of the Raepore and Calcutta road. It is a regular "Koorrun" quarry, and these stones are taken from it to different parts of the country as an article of trade by Brinjarras and other people. They are found in strata as I have numbered them, i. e. No. 1, is under the surface, No. 2, under that again, and then come the different kinds of No. 3,

*

marked with the *. No. 3, is I believe found under all the others and there

*

was too much water in the quarry to see what was under it. All these are

* It has since arrived.

used in the arsenal here as 66 Samy stone" by the native Sickleghurs, and in addition to them they use 4, 5, and 6, none of which were found at Pohorah. I dare say however they are to be had there if a careful search could be made. The Commissariat supplies the arsenal with all these kinds under the name of "Country Emery." It is purchased in the bazaars, where it is brought by the Brinjarras, Beparries, &c. &c. No. 6 is called by the Madras Sickleghurs the real "Samy stone," because it will scratch or cut tempered

*

steel. Next to it, in their estimation, comes 3, all the rest are good enough of

*

their kind and do well enough for cleaning brass work. Pohorah is situated in a hilly country. The only hill however known to contain these stones is the one in which the quarry is. Not far from it is a hill containing 'soap-stone' some of which the people brought to me."

So far Dr. Macintire's chit.-The stones however are of two different classes and have no relation to Major William's Samy stone which is an Agalmatolite, and rather used, it would seem, for burnishing. But in the eight specimens Dr. Macintire furnishes us with, are two new varieties for our cabinets, one of which is very remarkable; the specimens are as follows: No. 1. Decomposing Fibrolite.

Nos. 4 and 5. Common rose and lilac coloured Corundum.
No. 6. A very fine white Corundum.

The Black Corundum is a very remarkable variety, and though distinctly giving the re-action of the Corundums before the Blowpipe, i. e. the Sapphire blue glass with nitrate of cobalt, I have failed to detect iron or manganese in it. We must wait for a supply of it to know what the colouring principle is.

H. PIDDINGTON, Curator, Museum Economic Geology.

Report of Curator, Zoological Department, for July Meeting, 1850.

SIR,-The donations which I have now to record consist of,

1. The skin of a young Assamese Goral, resembling that of an adult formerly received, and both differing from the ordinary Himálayan Goral in being of a bright rufous colour. Presented by Major Jenkins, of Gowhattı.

2. Thirty-five additional species of land and fresh water shells, from various parts of India, presented by myself.

July 1st, 1850.

I have the honour to be, Sir,

Obediently Your's,

E. BLYTH.

LIBRARY.

The following additions have been made to the Library since the June Meeting.

Presented.

Statistical Report of the district of Cawnpur; by Robert Montgomery, Esq. Calcutta 1849, 4to.-BY THE GOVERNMENT OF THE NORTH WESTERN PROVINCES.

A Dictionary, English and Panjabi, Outlines of Grammar, also Dialogues, English and Panjabi, with Grammar and Explanatory Notes, By Captain Starkey, 3rd Regiment, Sikh Local Infantry; Assisted by Bussowa Sing, Jemedar. Calcutta, 1849, 8vo.-BY THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.

Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. XVIII. London 1850, 4to.-BY THE SOCIETY.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. IX.-BY THE SOCIETY.

Astronomie Indienne l'apres la doctrine et les Libres Anciens et Modernes des Brammes sur l'Astronomie, l'Astrologie et la Chronologie suive de l'Examin de l'Astronomie des Anciens peuples de l'Orient et de l'explication des principaux monuments Astronomico-Astrologiques de l'Egypte et de la Perse, Par M. L'Abbe J. M. F. Guerin. Paris 1847. 8vo.-BY THE

AUTHOR.

The Calcutta Christian Observer, for July, 1850.-BY THE EDITOR.
The Oriental Baptist. No. 43.-BY THE EDITOR.

The Upadeshaka. No. 43.-BY THE EDITOR.

Tattvabodhiní Patriká. No. 83.-BY THE TATTVABODHINI' SABHA'. Meteorological Register kept at the Surveyor General's Office, Calcutta, for the month of May, 1850.-BY THE DEPUTY SURVEYOR GENERAL. Journal of the Indian Archipelago for April, 1850.—BY THE EDITOR. Two copies of the same.-BY THE GOVERNMENT of Bengal. Oriental Christian Spectator for May, 1850.-BY THE EDITOR. Satyárnava. No. 1.-BY THE REV. J. LONG.

Citizen. Nos. 1 and 3.-BY THE EDITOR.