XX XIV rROCEEDINGS, 



the special care of the second curator, Dr. K. Jordan, are especially 

 numerous, and amongst the latter a box attracted much attention 

 in which Mr. Rothschild, for his own study, had arranged a 

 number of beetles in a graduated series, each beetle differing but 

 very slightly from its neighbour, while half-a-dozen specimens at 

 least might be picked out which, but for the connecting Knks, 

 would unhesitatingly be referred to different species. 



In the library, an indispensable adjunct to all well-appointed 

 museums, there is a very fine collection of zoological and other 

 natural-history works. 



In an enclosure outside the Museum were seen some living 

 examples of the sacred cattle of India, mostly bred here, and also 

 a large collection of living birds. 



Tring Park, adjoining — the seat of Lord Rothschild — was next 

 visited, and in it were seen emus (wingless birds) and kangaroos. 



The party, accompanied by Mr. Hartert, then drove to "Dundale," 

 a pretty dell excavated in the Middle Chalk by a stream issuing 

 from a spring which is one of the feeders of the Thame. Several 

 birds are breeding here, including the Rhea, an American winged 

 bird allied to the ostrich. A few clutches of eggs, which are 

 occasionally added to, were seen. The male bird only sits upon 

 them. 



The following account of the Dundale spring, and of other springs 

 in the neighbourhood, is contributed by Mr. A. M. Brown : — 



" The spring at Dundale is one of the four sources, in the 

 Lower and Middle Chalk of Tring, of, originally, as many small 

 streams, which, soon uniting north-westward from the escarpment, 

 once flowed out of our county to the valley of the Thame. The 

 water-bearing beds producing them are the Totternhoe Stone, 

 the Rag-bed of the Lower Chalk, some 40 feet higher, and the 

 Melbourn Rock, forming the base of the Middle Chalk, about 

 80 feet above the Totternhoe Stone. 



"The Melbourn Rock, with its underlying marly bands, is 

 probably responsible for 'Dundale' and the springs at Trogmore' 

 in the town of Tring, and the Rag-bed for those at Miswell and 

 Bulbourne Head, the latter sending two streams in opposite 

 directions, one running south-east through Bcrkhamsted, the other 

 north-west by Gubblecote or Bubblecote, forming there the boundary 

 between Herts and Bucks. 



" By the construction of the Grand Jimction Canal and its 

 reservoirs at the end of the last century, and the erection of the 

 Tring Silk Mill in 1824, all these streams were diverted, and a 

 considerable length of those issuing from Bulbourne Head absorbed. 

 The other three were conducted to the Silk Mill and thence by 

 an embanked 'feeder' to the Reservoirs, whence a corresponding 

 flow has to be delivered to the ancient channels beyond. 



"In 1889 Dundale was converted by Lord Rothschild into its 

 present picturesque state by raising the level and increasing the 

 extent of the water, planting numerous trees, and building the 

 pretty lodge and summer-room near the Icknield Way." 



