Superintending Engineers, forwarding a copy of Captain Tremenheere's Memoir, agreeably to Mr. Piddington's suggestion.

I have, &c. &c.

G. A. BUSHBY,

Secretary to the Government of Bengal.

FORT WILLIAM, the 1st December, 1841.

Extract from letter No. 13 of 1841, from the Honorable the Court of Directors, in the Revenue Department, under date the 8th September. 2.-We have transmitted a copy of Mr. Piddington's Report to Mr. Delabeche, the Director of the Museum of Economic Geology in this country, and we have informed that gentleman, that we shall be happy to receive from him for transmission to you, any communication which he may desire to make on the subject of that Report, as well as any further specimens which it may be in his power to add to the collection.

3. We desire that you will transmit to us any specimens which you may be enabled to collect of objects, which in your opinion may be appropriately presented to the Institution over which Mr. Delabeche presides.

(A true Extract,)

G. A. BUSHBY,

Secretary to the Government of Bengal.

CIRCULAR No. 31.

To the Superintending Engineers.

I am instructed by the Military Board to send for circulation to the Officers of Public Works under your control, the copy of Mr. Secretary Bushby's letter No. 432 of 24th March last, and copies of a Memorandum drawn up by Captain Tremenheere, regarding the establishment in Calcutta of a Museum of Economic Geology, and to request that you will invite the co-operation of the Executive Officers of your circle in the attainment of the proposed end.

2.-The Memoir contains full instructions as to the manner in which

the co-operation of officers may be best effected. It shews what speci

mens should be collected, and what information should accompany them.

3. The Board desire me to express their hope, that officers will turn their attention to the objects contemplated in the formation of the proposed Museum, and they desire me to request, that when any box of specimens is collected the circumstance may be reported to you, and your orders taken as to its transmission before any actual expense is incurred. A copy of the descriptive papers which are to accompany the box should also be sent to you, in order, that if the information appears deficient in any essential point, you may have the deficiency supplied before the specimens are actually sent to Calcutta.

4.-The Board would wish you to exercise your discretion as to having the boxes sent in the first instance to your own office and thence transmitted to Calcutta, or in desiring Executive Officers to send the specimens direct to the Presidency; but in either case, they should be sent to the Board's office for transmission to Government.

5.-The Board request particular attention to the 2d paragraph of Mr. Bushby's letter, but they do not conceive it to be the intention of Government, that useful specimens should be entirely withheld, when opportunities of sending them free of expense do not occur. The Board trust, however, that the most economical mode of transmission will always be adopted.

I have, &c.,

(Signed) A. BROOME, Officiating Secretary Military Board.

Military Board Office, 6th November, 1841.

To G. A. BUSHBY, Esq., Secretary to Government, General Department. SIR,-Your letter dated the 1st ultimo, with its enclosures, was laid before the Meeting of the Asiatic Society held in this month, and the Meeting referred the subject to the Committee of Papers, in order that full consideration might be given to the important subject urged by the Honorable Court of Directors upon the attention of the Society, in connexion with the formation of a Museum of Economic Geology for India, and the collection and arrangement of specimens here, of which duplicates should be transmitted for preservation in appropriate Museums in England.

2.-The Governor of Bengal is aware, that a suitable room of our premises has been assigned for the specimens brought to India by Captain Tremenheere, and that the Society has a large assortment of Mineralogical and other specimens, collected from various parts of India, from which, with care in the arrangement, and particular attention to the localities from which the articles have been procured, a valuable Museum of the kind desired, might now be commenced upon, so as to form nucleus of an Economic institution, to which all public officers might refer for information, and into which all further objects of useful discovery might, as collected by the Officers of Government, be brought for safe deposit and investigation.

3.-But for the arrangement of the specimens we possess in the scientific order requisite, and for their discrimination and proper ascertainment, the entire services of a gentleman versed in somewhat more than the rudiments of sciences of Geology and Mineralogy, and a proficient in Chemistry, and the use of tests for purposes of analysis, will obviously be indispensible; and it would be a great advantage that this gentleman should also not be a stranger to the Geography and languages of the country, and that he should be known to, and in habits of correspondence with, persons engaged in similar pursuits in different parts of India.

4.—The Curator the Society has recently obtained from Europe, Mr. Blyth, is eminent in all departments of Zoology, and his indefatigable exertions in this line, have already increased largely the value of the Museum, as well by the addition of an infinity of new specimens excellently set up, as by the discovery amongst our neglected stores of objects valuable to science which had escaped the less accurate investigation of his predecessors in this line. But Mr. Blyth's whole time is occupied in this very extensive branch of the Museum, and he does not profess at present, to be sufficiently acquainted with Mineralogy and Geology, to be able to superintend the formation of the desired. Economic Museum; besides that being new to the country, and unacquainted with its localities and languages, he would feel greatly at a loss in the attempt to arrange and investigate the affinities of soil, and other characteristic peculiarities of provinces and districts, which it should be the aim of an Economic Museum to display.

5.-The Society has been indebted to Mr. Piddington for all that has yet been done in this department; the qualifications of this gentle

man as a chemist and man of general science, are well known to the Governor of Bengal, but his attainments in the branches of Geology and Mineralogy, and the attention he has given to these sciences in their special application to India, may not have been antecedently represented to his Lordship. He is regarded by the members of the Committee, and by the Society for which they are acting, as eminently qualified to undertake the particular duties and charge to which their attention has been thus directed.

6. Circumstances at the present juncture enable this gentleman to give to the Society a large portion of his valuable time, but render it impossible, that they should be accepted without remuneration. On the part of the President and Committee of Papers of the Society therefore, I am directed to request you will submit to his Lordship, that if importance be attached to prosecuting researches in Economic Geology, and to the careful examination and arrangement of specimens and objects connected with this science, they see no means of satisfying the wishes of the Government and of the Court of Directors, except by securing the services of Mr. Piddington, on a separate salary equal to that now assigned to the Curator; viz. 250 Rupees per mensem. We cannot hope that Mr. Piddington will engage permanently, or for any given period on these terms, but we doubt not that his exertions for the time of his devoting himself to this branch of our Museum, will place the department on such a footing, as will much facilitate its being afterwards carried on by less competent persons; and in this manner, a basis will be laid for a Museum of infinite value to science and to the public service.

7.-Mr. Piddington's services, if engaged, will be of infinite use to the Society in other branches also, for he is versed in Numismatology, and proficient in all the knowledge required for the discrimination and arrangement of scientific objects. The Committee would propose for him the title," Joint Curator," giving to his special charge, as well the Geological as any other parts of the Museum, that we might consider him specially qualified to arrange and report upon.

I have &c. for the Committee,

(Signed) H. TORRENS, Secretary to the Asiatic Society.

Asiatic Society's Rooms, Calcutta, the 27th Jan. 1842.

No. 265.

To H. TORRENS, Esq. Secretary to the Asiatic Society. General Dept.

SIR,-I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, dated the 27th ultimo, conveying the recommendation of the President and Committee of Papers of the Asiatic Society for the appointment of Mr. Piddington as Joint Curator to the Museum of Economic Geology, with reference to the orders for the formation of a Museum of Economic Geology for India.

2.—In reply I am desired to state, that the Right Honorable the Governor of Bengal, with the concurrence of the Government of India, has been pleased to sanction a payment from the Treasury of 250 Rupees a month for the remuneration of Mr. H. Piddington in the appointment of "Joint Curator" to the Museum of Economic Geology, which the President and Committee propose to confer on that gentleman. The accompanying Extract, Paragraph 5, from a letter dated the 23d June 1841, in the Revenue Department, from the Honorable the Court of Directors, will inform the Society as to the views of the Honorable the Court of Directors respecting the appointment which has been thus constituted, and the duties that he is expected to perform in connection with the Museum of Economic Geology.

3. I am directed to take this opportunity of transmitting for the information of the Asiatic Society, a copy of a despatch from the Court of Directors, No. 14 of 1841, dated the 2d of November, and of the Letter and Memorandum from Mr. Delabeche therein mentioned.

I am, &c. &c.

G. A. BUSHBY,

Secretary to the Government of Bengal.

FORT WILLIAM, the 26th February, 1842.

Extract from letter, No. 10 of 1841, from the Honorable the Court of Directors, in the Revenue Department, dated the 23d June.

5. We cannot doubt that much benefit may be derived from such an institution under proper superintendence. In order, however, to make it practically useful, we apprehend that it will be necessary to place it