Page:Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 7, Part 1.djvu/529

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1838.]
Proceedings of the Asiatic Society.
459


The following were also presented. Proceedings of the Agricultural Society of India, January to May, 1838 — by the Society W. Adam's Third Report on Educational Statistics of India — by the author. The Meteorological Register — by the Surveyor General.

Fauna Boreali-Americana, or Zoology of the Northern parts of British Ame- rica. Part 2nd, containing the birds, with plates and cuts, by Dr. Richardson and W. Swainson, Esq. London, 1831, 4to. 524 pages, Rs. 50-^purchasedfor the Society by the Museum Committee. 11 vols. Naturalist's Library, edited by Sir William Jardine, at 3 Rs. per vol. the remaining vols, to be supplied at the same price — ditto. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia, Treatise on Geology, Vol. I. London, 1837 — from the booksellers. Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain and Portugal, Vol. III. London, 1837— /rom ditto. Two series of circulars, one addressed to the Asiatic Society of Bengal,, the other to the Asiatic Society of Calcutta ! forwarding prospectus of Foote's medical pocket book and almanack.

Literary and Antiquities.

Mr. Secretary Prinsep, transmitted on the part of Government, vocabularies of the Baraky. and of five other languages spoken in the Panjab, compiled by Lieutenant R. Leech, of the Bombay Engineers.

In reply to the Society's application to the Governor General of the 15th December, requesting that the executive engineer might be permit- ted to effect the conveyance of the broken pillar presented to the Society by Raja Hindu Rao from Delhi to Calcutta, Mr. Secy. Macnaghten for* warded copies of correspondence with Captain G. Thomson, and Captain T. S. Burt of Engineers on the subject, and requested on the part of the Gov. Gen. to know whether the Society would still wish its removal. Captain Thomson reported that the transportation of the shaft would cost 2000 rupees : — but Captain Burt suggested that by cutting off the inscribed part it might be sent down for a tenth of that sum, though he doubted whether a fac- simile would not answer every purpose, considering the mutilated condition of the inscription. The object of possessing the Delhi fragment in the Society's museum being ra- ther as the only actual specimen of the ancient character which it would be possi- ble to make portable, than for the sake of reading its contents, which are known and published in the Journal for last September, it was resolved still to re- quest the aid of the Governor General for the dispatch, of the inscribed portion at least of the shaft under the superintendence of Captain Burt. Mr. B. H. Hodgson having been informed of the Society's wish to publish the text of the Lafita vistara in Sanskrit and Tibetan with a trans- lation by M. Csoma de Koros, sent down two more manuscripts of this standard Buddhist work for collation with the Society's copy as it passes through the press. One of these copies bears the marks of great anti- quity, and both are more correct than the copy in the library. Major James Low, M. A. S. C. offered to the Society for publication a paper entitled " Excursions to the Eastward, No. 1, or extracts from the journal of a Political Mission to the raja of Ligor in Lower Sidm, with drawings. Captain T. S. Burt forwarded the 87 facsimiles of various inscriptions mentioned at the last meeting. He had also lately taken with considerable trouble, complete impressions of the Feroz lath inscriptions and of the inscription on the iron pillar at Delhi, which has been so long a desideratum. They had been made over to the Secy. Gov. Gen. for transmission. 3 M