interest on several subjects connected with the investigations in which the Society takes an active interest.

BIBLIOTHECA INDICA.

The Council are gratified to notice the continued activity which has prevailed during the past year in the different branches of the Bibliotheca Indica. Sixteen numbers have appeared of the new series and fifteen of the old.

In the new series the Vais/eshika Sutras have been completed with two commentaries under the editorship of Pundit Jayanáráyana Tarka Panchánana, and Dr. Ballantyne has published the S'ánḍilya Sutras with Swapnes'wara's commentary. Dr. Hall has published the first Fasc. of the Das'a-rúpa or Hindu canons of Dramaturgy, (the Fasc. concluding the work is in the press), and he has also in the press an edition of the very rare Nátya Sástra of Bharata. Mr. Cowell has edited the Kaushitaki Upanishad with S'ankaránanda's commentary; the Rev. K. M. Banerjea has published the first part of the Nárada Pancharátra; and the first part has been published of the translation of the Siddhánta S'iromani by the late Lancelot Wilkinson, Esq., revised by Pundit Bápu Deva.

Considerable progress has also been made in the series of Muhammadan historians of India: four Fas. have been issued of Zíá-i Barní's Táríkhi Ferozsháhí, and only one more remains to complete the work.

The Táríkhi Masáúdi of Baihakí, (as prepared for publication by the late W. H. Morley, Esq.) has been also commenced and two Fasc. have appeared.

The editors of the works in the old series have also made good progress towards the gradual completion of the publications still remaining unfinished.

Mr. Cowell has issued two Fasc. of the Black Yajush Sanhitá; and Babu Rájendralál Mitra has brought out two Fasc. of the Black Yajur Brahmana, and the concluding parts of the Kámandakíya Níti Sára, and of an English translation of the Chhándogya Upanishad. The Kámandakíya Níti Sára is a rare work on polity, and will prove interesting to Oriental scholars, while the translation is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the literature of the Upanishads.

Pundit Rámnáráyana who undertook in the absence of Dr. Roer to complete the Vedánta Sutras, has published three Fasc. of that important treatise.

The Rev. K. M, Banerjea has issued two numbers of his edition of the Márkandeya Purána. Only one more fasciculus remains to complete that important work.

The titles of the Fasciculi of the old series published during the past year are:

The Dictionary of Technical Terms used in the Science of the Musulmans, P. II. edited by Mawlavies Abdul-Haqq and Gholám Kádir under the supervision of Captain W. N. Lees, LL. D., Nos. 167, 170, 173, Fas. XVII. XVIII. XIX.

2. The conquest of Syria commonly ascribed to Aboo Abd Allah Muhammad Bin Omar al Waqidi, edited by Captain W. N. Lees, LL. D., No. 168, Fas. VIII.

3. Márkandeya Purána, edited by Rev. K. M. Banerjea, Nos. 169, 177, Fas. V. and VI.

4. Sanhitá of the Black Yajur Veda with the commentary of Mádhava Achárya, edited by E. B. Cowell, M. A.; Nos. 171, 180, Fas. XIV. XV.

5. Aphorisms of the Vedánta, by Bádarayana with the commentary of S'ankara Achárya and the gloss of Govinda Ananda, edited by Pundit Rámnáráyana Vidyáratna, Nos. 172, 174, 178, Fasc. III. IV, V.

6. Taittiriya Bráhmana of the Black Yajur Veda with the commentary of Sʼayanáchárya, edited by Babu Rajendralal Mitra, Nos. 175, 176, Fase. X. XI.

7. Níti Sára or the Elements of Polity, by Kámandaki, edited by Babu Rajendralal Mitra, No. 179, Fasc. II.

8. The Chhandogya Upanishad translated into English, by Babu Rajendralal Mitra, No. 181, Fasc. II.

The titles of the Fasciculi of the new Series are:

1. The Vais'eshika Dars'ana with the commentaries of S'ankara Mis'ra and Jayanáráyana Tarka Panchánana, edited by Pundit Jayanáráyana Tarka Panchánana, Professor of philosophy in the Sanscrit College of Bengal, Nos. 5, 6, 8, 16, Fasc. II. III. IV. V.

2. Táríkhi Ferozsháhí of Zíá al Din Barni commonly called Ziaa-i-Barni, edited by Saiyid Ahmed Khan under the supervision of Captain W. N. Lees, LL.D. Nos. 7, 9, 14, 15, Fasc. III. IV. V. VI. 3. Aphorisms of Sándilya with the commentary of Swapnes' wara edited by J, R. Ballantyne, LL. D. No. 11.

4. Das'a-rúpa or Hindu canons of Dramaturgy, by Dhananjaya; with the exposition of Dhanika, the Avaloka, edited by FitzEdward Hall, D. C. L., No. 12, Fasc. I.

5. Hindu Astronomy, II. The Siddhánta S'iromani. Translated from the Sanskrit. By the late Lancelot Wilkinson, Esq., C. S. and revised by Pundit Bápu Deva Sástri under the superintendence of the Ven'ble Archdeacon Pratt, No. 13, Fas. I.

6. Náradapancharátra, edited by Rev. K. M. Banerjee, No. 17, Fas. I.

7. Táríkhi Baiháki of Masaud, son of Sultan Mahmúd Gházi, edited by the late W. H. Morley, Esq., published under the superintendence of Maulavi Kabiruddeen Ahmed, Nos. 16, 18, Fas, I. II. 8. Kaushitaki Upanishad, edited by E. B. Cowell, M. A., Nos. 19, 20, Fas. I. II.

OFFICERS.

In consequence of the failing health of the Curator, Mr. Blyth, the Council on the 28th July last, again addressed a memorial to the Right Hon'ble the Secretary of State for India, soliciting a reconsideration of the decision by which Mr. Blyth's claim to pension was declared inadmissible. The Council are not without hopes that the long and valuable services of Mr. Blyth in advancing zoological science in India, will induce the Government to bestow on him a pension which has been fairly earned.

Bábu Gour Doss Bysack, who for some years held the office of Assistant Secretary and Librarian to the Society, having lately resigned, his place has been filled up by the appointment of Bábu Lalgopal Dutt, B. A., who had officiated for him on two different occasions. Babu Gour Doss Bysack was a zealous and active Officer and fully merited the approbation of the Council. His successor has also hitherto discharged his duties to their satisfaction.

The President in moving the adoption of the report observed: "I venture to recommend for the meeting's approval and adoption the report which has just been read. It might, I think, have gone further had it not been the Council's province to confine it to matters of business. The year to which it relates has been on many accounts an interesting one, as the record of the Society's proceedings will, I think, show.

"These proceedings opened by Mr. Le Mesurier's communication

from Jubbulpore announcing the discovery of Celts in the neighbourhood of the Tonse river. This is believed to have been the first discovery of the kind in India, and gives us a special and local interest in questions which have lately been occupying prominent attention in Europe. I am in hopes that the new year will see arrangements made by the Council for pursuing enquiries as to what people are likely to have made or used these implements, and as to whether similar traces of human life at a very ancient period may not be forthcoming in other parts of India.

"I have already proposed to my colleagues on the Council that all advantage should be taken of our position in a country so rich as India is in ethnological materials. We have already the Schlagintweit casts and hope to secure a series of the photographic drawings which are now in course of preparation for dispatch to England by order of the different local governments. If we can succeed in collecting together the crania of some even of the many races which now exist in India, we shall have the means of assisting largely in researches which have assumed a new importance within the last year or two.

"Our March meeting was a crowded one. Captain Montgomerie, it will be remembered, on that evening exhibited to us his map of the Jummoo territories, and read his memo. on the progress of the Kashmir series of the Great Trigonometrical Survey, which was afterwards published in our Journal. It has been with the greatest satisfaction that I have observed during the last year or two, the increasing number of recruits which our list of members is receiving from the two great Surveys now in progress in India. I look on their adhesion to our Society as real strength gained, for these new members have the privilege of pursuing as a profession, investigations which enable them to contribute most valuable information to our Journal as well as to our general meetings.

"On another occasion we had from Captain Pelly an account of his adventurous ride without disguise and without arms from Trebizond to Kurrachee, and in May we listened to an interesting paper by Colonel Yule on some antiquities near Jubbulpore, and to some observations by Professor Oldham on a small but valuable collection of fossils which had been presented to his museum by his Excellency Sir William Denison who was himself present at the meeting. Mr.

Oldham showed us that he hoped to derive from this collection most material assistance in determining the question of the true age of the coal-bearing strata of this country.

Information was

"The June meeting was also an interesting one. communicated to it of the fall of aerolites at Peeprassee on the 12th May, and further particulars of the previous fall at Dhurmsala,--a magnificent specimen of the former was exhibited.

"It was then also that we received the first announcement of the intention of Government to send an expedition across the snows under Captain E. Smyth to Chinese Tartary, and although this project has since been dropped in consequence of the failure to obtain passports for the party from Pekin, it is to be hoped that it is abandoned for a time only. I am, I believe, at liberty to mention the names of the gentlemen who were to form Captain Smyth's party. They were Dr. W. L. Stewart, Mr. H. B. Medlicott, Lieutenant Basevie and Dr. T. C. Jerdon.

"At our August meeting, Colonel Yule read a memo. drawn up by M. de Mazure, Vicar apostolic of Thibet, on the countries between that country Yunan and Burmah, which had been sent to us by Colonel Phayre. Lord Canning, it will be remembered, attended at this meeting. The subject was full of interest, for at the time we had not heard of Colonel Sarel's return from his attempt to penetrate to Thibet through W. China. It was thought that any day might bring us news of him from Lhassa or even Darjeeling. Colonel Yule illustrated his remarks on the memo. by a map compiled by himself from the scanty materials available, and this map is, I believe, being published with the memo. in the forthcoming No. of our Journal. At the next meeting the failure of the Yang-tse Kiang expedition was announced, and soon afterwards the purport of the unfavourable reply from Pekin to the application of the Indian Government for passports of Captain Smyth's party was communicated to the Society. I earnestly hope that a renewed attempt which Colonel Sarel has applied for leave to make, up the Yangtse-Kiang, may ere long be sanctioned by the home Government, and that the same authorities may further permit the vigorous prosecution of other expeditions which have been mooted during the last year, and which have for their object the extension of our geographical knowledge of the countries on our northern and eastern frontiers.