Dr. Stoliczka's Collection of Mammals

Abstract

I SEND you an extract of a paper lately published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal by Mr. W. T. Blanford, on the mammals collected by the late Dr. Stoliczka in Yarkand, &c., and have italicised one or two of the more important sentences. These show how the value of the fine collection has been materially reduced by the appropriation of the finest heads of ruminants, &c., after Dr. Stoliczka's death. The collection before its arrival in Calcutta was known to contain some splendid heads of Ovis poli, and other wild sheep, all of which were carried at the expense of the Indian Government from Yarkand over the Karakoram via Kashmir to India, a long and costly journey. The finest of these heads, it is well known, have passed into private hands, while the Government Museum in Calcutta cannot show a specimen of decent size. The whole should have passed intact to the above museum, and would have been there examined, and the duplicate specimens sent to the Indian and British Museums here in England. The extract from Mr. Blanford's paper tells its own tale, and I think it would do good to let the fact of the partial destruction of a valuable collection of an able naturalist be more widely known than to the few readers of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Every specimen in the collection was as much public property as the munitions in a Government store, and could not be disposed of by any member of the Government or mission.