438 - NATURAL SCIENCE. dec. 



ultimately a store-house for the preservation of authentic series of Forest specimens, 

 not only as a matter of scientific importance, but also as aids to the studies of the 

 many amateurs who frequent the Forest as one of the best ' ' all-round ' ' hunting grounds 

 for the naturalist in the London district. With the permission and enlightened 

 recognition of the usefulness of such an exhibition by the Epping Forest Committee 

 of the Corporation of London (who have met the wishes of the Club in the kindest 

 way), the collections have been housed in the Banqueting-room of the antique 

 building known as " Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge," which was transferred by 

 the Crown to the Corporation at the passing of the Epping Forest Act, to be pre- 

 served "as an object of antiquarian interest." The arrangement of the cases has 

 been admirably carried out by Messrs. W. and B. G. Cole, with the co-operation of 

 an enthusiastic Committee, and an interesting series of specimens is already dis- 

 played. Mr. T. Hay Wilson has contributed a small collection of rock-specimens 

 from the gravels of the Forest area, and derived fossils from the Boulder Clay. 

 Mr. J. E. Greenhill has a series of bones of mammals and shells of molluscs from 

 the surface deposits of the Lea valley, also numerous stone and bronze implements. 

 The investigations of the Essex Field Club itself have provided late Celtic objects 

 from the Ambresbury and Loughton Camps. Mr. Chalkly Gould has arranged a 

 collection of Romano-British pottery, etc., from Chigwell, which is described in the 

 first of a proposed series of Museum Handbooks. A collection of dried fungi, made 

 by the late Mr. English, of Epping, occupies a wall-case ; and near it is a valuable 

 volume of about 500 coloured plates of fungi by Dr. M. C. Cooke. The flowering 

 plants collected and dried in an uncrushed state by the late Mr. English occupy 

 numerous cases, and large plates of dissections from Oliver's "Botany" are con- 

 veniently placed near them. The insects are mainly from the collections of Messrs. 

 W. and B. G. Cole, while the land and fresh-water shells, beautifully mounted, have 

 been contributed by Mr. W. Crouch. An almost complete collection of the eggs of 

 birds nesting in the Forest is exhibited, and the birds themselves are not only 

 represented by many actual specimens, but also by a series of woodcuts from 

 Saunders' " British Birds." On the staircase are shown seme interesting maps and 

 various views of the Forest. The museum is open to the public each week-day, and 

 all communications respecting it should be addressed to Mr. William Cole, the 

 Honorary Curator. 



We understand that the Belgian Government, not satisfied with the extent of its 

 new Royal Museum of Natural History, is already contemplating the addition of a 

 special gallery for the reception of the unique series of Iguanodons and other fossil 

 vertebrates from the Wealden of Bernissart. 



During a recent visit to the West Prussian Provincial Museum, at Danzig, 

 Dr. A. Nehring identified a portion of skull of the Saiga Antelope obtained from a 

 superficial deposit near Graudenz, where many other fossil bones have been found. 

 This is the first definite record of the occurrence of the Saiga among the " Diluvial 

 Fauna" of Germany. 



A NEW public museum has recently been opened at Kasan. The collections, 

 says Nature, comprise numerous ornaments of gold and silver, various arms and 

 implements from the former kingdom of the Volga Bulgars, modern decorative art 

 of the Kasan Tartars, dress and implements of the Chuvashes, Cheremisses, and 

 Mordves, and nearly 1,500 stone implements from the basins of the Volga and 

 Kama. Alexandria also has opened a public museum, chiefly devoted to Greek, 

 Roman, and Coptic antiquities. 



The cost of Lieutenant Peary's last expedition to Inglefield Gulf v.ill, says the 

 American Naturalist, be repaid by his observations and collections in ethnology, 

 meteorology, and other branches of science. The scientific results of the relief 

 expedition are also of great value, and the large collections made by it will go to the 

 American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the Museum of Kansas 

 University. 



