of comparison and collation which were doubtless a main cause of his success; but the study and exertions required for the satisfaction of these numerous references to his individual skill, although entered upon with a zeal participated only by those who have achieved much, and feel that there is yet more within their reach which ought to be the result of their own discoveries, were too severe for the climate of India, and the Editor's robust constitution sunk at last under the incessant labour and close attention given to these favorite studies at the very moment when the richest collection of inscriptions, coins, and relics, that had ever been got together in India, were actually on their way to Calcutta, as materials for maturing the results he had achieved. The collections of Mr. Masson were forwarded from Bombay in the John Adam, which reached Calcutta only in the course of the past December. There are of these coins from four to six thousand, besides the contents of several topes, and casts of figures of Budh, with various other remains of the period antecedent to the Muhammadan invasion of Bactria and Afghanistan. The whole of this collection was by order of Government laid upon the table of the Asiatic Society at the meeting of January, 1839; but the members present felt that, in the absence of their late Secretary, and likewise of Capt. Cunningham, Mr. V. Tregear, and Colonel Stacy, there were no persons in Calcutta to whom the examination, arrangement, and report upon the coins and relics could be committed with confidence. They came therefore to the unanimous resolution to recommend their being forwarded without delay to England, where the Honorable Court would have the opportunity of submitting them to the inspection of the late Secretary of the Asiatic Society, jointly with Dr. Wilson, the librarian at the East India House, and so the ends of science and of antiquarian research would be most effectually answered.

The care of this magnificent collection, which is large enough to supply all the museums in Europe, has been kindly undertaken by Mr. Cracroft, a very zealous member of the Asiatic Society, and there is ground for hoping that under his superintendence a catalogue may yet be made before he takes his final departure for England. The articles have come round in bags without any separate lists, and in one bag there are about two thousand copper coins.

But, independently of Mr. Masson's collection, another numbered by thousands has been brought to Calcutta by Dr. McLeod, the Inspector General of Hospitals to Her Majesty's forces in India. This consists partly of coins of all metals, but there are also several seals and gems of different stones cut with a great variety of emblems and devices.

All these are the property of Sir A. Burnes, and have arrived

for deposit and custody as well as for inspection; they are therefore still available for the curious, and will continue so until Sir A. Burnes shall send instructions as to their disposal. We cannot ourselves undertake the particular examination of these relics so as to give the detailed description they deserve. A selection from the coins had, however, previously been made at Simla, and those deemed most curious being forwarded by the dawk arrived fortunately before the departure of our Editor. Amongst them is that most curious coin of Dr. Lord, with the head of Eucratides on one side, and of both his parents on the other, a drawing of which is exhibited in plate xlii. From the other selected coins thus transmitted, a plate was prepared by the Editor, which was intended to be illustrative of an article he designed giving in our last October number. The plate remains, and we attach it to this article, that the curious who have followed our Editor to the length of his past researches may see the objects which he deemed worthy of fresh illustration in the field of Indo-Bactrian numismatology. If the 'Herefordshire,' the ship in which he took passage, had touched at Madras, or had put into Mauritius, or had met a vessel at sea, we might have hoped for the comments promised on this, as on two other plates which we also intend to give, and shall separately refer to. But the time approaches when the issue of the last number of our series will be expected, and we can no longer defer the publication, under the doubtful expectation of receiving the desiderated paper from the Cape of Good Hope. Of the coins and gems therefore in Sir Alexander Burnes's collection we can at present make no use, but we hold them in deposit for the examination of others, and to await his further instructions. We must be content at present to give the plate referred to, which it will be seen is numbered xliii., together with such brief reading of the names, as a Tyro of Indian numismatics might be expected with the aid of the alphabets to supply. The plate is of IndoBactrian coins of date antecedent to the introduction of Grecian art, with the Grecian alphabet, into the mints of that country. The legends are in the ancient No. 1 character of the then universal Pálí language, with Bactrian characters in some instances on the obversé, or intermixed. The names and emblems on these coins are well worth

the study of the learned.

Along with Sir A. Burnes's coins, Dr. McLeod brought to Calcutta a very singular relic obtained by Dr. Lord at Badakhshán, and which is, we believe, destined for the British Museum. The relic in question is an ancient patera of silver, embossed in the interior in very high relief, and representing, with all the usual adjuncts of classic mythology, the procession of Bacchus. The god himself sits in a car drawn by two

harnessed females with a drinking cup in his hand. A fat infant, Silenus, stands in front, and there is a female figure sitting on the after corner of the car, which, from its disproportionate size, we imagine to be the carved elbow of the seat on which the god reclines. There are also two winged cupids in attendance, one flying with a wand in his hand, to which a fillet is attached, the other end of which is held by the infant Silenus; and the other on the foreground behind the wheel of the car, as if employed in pushing it on. The car is followed by a dancing Hercules, distinguishable by the club and lion skin. The heads of this figure and of the Bacchus are both wanting, owing probably to their having been of gold, or thought so, while the rest of the patera, being only of silver gilt, has escaped similar violation. The gilding, however, is mostly worn away from long use, and in one part the side of the cup is actually worn through. Independently of the circumstance of the main figure being represented with a cup in hand, its identity with the Grecian Bacchus is proved by the vines circumpendent, and by the figure of a tiger standing prominently out in the fore-ground and drinking out of a wine jar.

This patera is the property of Dr. Lord, who is also the fortunate owner of the double-headed coin of Eucratides, the original apparently from which the plate of a similar coin is given in Dr. Vincent's 'Periplus;' but the double head is there represented as being on both sides of the coin. With a liberality deserving of particular notice, both these unique relics have been gratuitously appropriated by the finder, or are intended to be so, in the manner deemed by him most conducive to the ends of science, Dr. Lord not desiring to retain them as isolated trophies of his own good fortune in the field of research and discovery.

I fear we must not look upon this piece of plate as affording evidence of the state of the arts in Badakhshán, where it was found, at any particular epoch. That it is of high antiquity is quite apparent from the condition of the metal, as well as from the design; but in the Periplus of the Erythrean sea, published amongst Arian's works, it is distinctly stated that ȧpyvpáμara, i.e. articles of silver plate, were a staple import from the west, for exchange against the productions of India. At Minnagarh, upon the Indus, it is further stated by the author of that treatise that he himself presented to the rája Baρúτiμa ȧpyvρáμata, valuable pieces of plate, in order to secure his favor, and the grant of certain privileges of trade. There is thus reason to believe that the patera must have been brought from Greece or Asia Minor, and either presented in like manner, or sold to some sovereign of Bactria, by a merchant desiring similar privileges of trade in that country. That it has been in use for centuries is evident from the