640 Professor L. C. Miall, on a TorJcshire Moor. [Feb. 18, 



fair to be handed down to our children and our children's children 

 without diminution or impoverishment. The reclaiming of the moors 

 is now checked, though not arrested, and some large tracts are re- 

 served as open spaces. But the imj)overishment of the moors goes 

 on apace. The gamekeeper's gun destroys much. Enemies yet 

 more deadly are the collectors who call themselves naturalists, and 

 the dealers who serve them, A botanical exchange club has lately 

 exterminated the yellow Gagea, which used to grow within a mile of 

 my house. "Whenever a kingfisher shows itself, young men come 

 from the towns eager to slay it in the name of science. No know-p- 

 ledge worth having is brought to us by such naturalists as these ; 

 their collecting means mere destruction, or at most the compilation 

 of some dismal list. If the selfish love of possessing takes hold of 

 any man, let him gratify it by collecting postage-stamps, and not 

 make hay of our plants and mummies of our animals. The naturalist 

 should aspire to study live nature, and sliould make it his boast that 

 he leaves as much behind him as he found. 



[L, C. M.] 



