74 Mr. J. E. Harting on Forest Animals. 



shown some flowers preserved by a new process. The 

 method was very similar to mine, but in place of plaster 

 sifted lime was employed, and petrolemn was not used. I 

 have tried lime, but I think it will prove to be too caustic, 

 and it is difificult to rid the plant of the dust. However, I 

 think it would be well to give it another trial, and perhaps 

 it may be worth while experimenting with mixtures of lime 

 and plaster. 



Mr. Saward has been following me in the same direction, 

 and has helped me in working out the process with equally 

 good results, as his specimens will prove. 



J. E. 



Seinemher 25th, 1880. 



FoEEST Animals. 

 By J. E. HARTING, F.L.S., E.Z.S., &c. 



{A Lecture delivered to the Club Novcniber 10th, 1880.) 



A MODERN writer, whose felicitous descriptions of rural life 

 have latterly become familiar to us — I refer to the author 

 of "Wild Life in a Southern County " — has remarked that 

 " one might begin to write a book about a hedgerow when 

 a boy, and find it incomplete in old age." What would he 

 say of a forest ? Whatever his reply might be, it is obvious 

 that, in the limited time at my disposal this evening, it 

 would be impossible for me to furnish anything like a com- 

 plete account of all that may be seen in a forest by those 

 who know how to observe. Were time of no importance, I 

 might give you some description of the former situation 

 and extent of the vast forests which at one time clothed 

 this island, and of the various wild animals which once 

 inhabited them, but which are now extinct. I might dis- 

 course to you of localities where forests of pine have been 

 replaced by trees of a different growth, thus inducing the 



