2 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. | 
these is Sweden, whose Government has within recent years set — 
aside several large reservations, within the boundaries of which | 
one may not kill or root up. | 
The cost of the upkeep of Wicken Fen in a condition to afford 
a secure refuge for all its dwellers is not inconsiderable, and the 
problem requires careful thought and experienced management. 
There is a watcher, of course, to provide, and there is the 
question of adapting a portion of the Fen to suit the habits and 
requirements of each of its various dwellers. 
It is perhaps not generally understood by those who have not 
visited the locality, that Wicken Fen, as we know it, is a product 
of a certain kind of cultivation, and not merely a swamp; in 
other words it is a series of sedge meadows; and large areas of 
it must be kept as such if the majority of its most interesting 
species of Lepidoptera are to be preserved. 
In what might, I suppose, be called recent geological time, 
the whole district was thickly covered with oak forest, the trees 
of which still remain buried, as they fell ages ago, a few feet deep 
in the peat. Then occurred a subsidence, and it became covered 
by a shallow arm of the sea, and later, as the entrance silted up, a 
quagmire, overgrown with reeds and waterplants, and with great 
stretches of open water. It was in this condition when history 
opens, and we get the first authentic glimpse of it at the time of 
the Norman Conquest, when the gallant Hereward, who had his 
stronghold at Ely,’some few miles away, held the invaders at bay 
for a no less period than seven years; and no doubt, the ground 
which is now known as Wicken Fen formed a portion of his 
defences. 
The next step was to construct dykes and erect pumps to 
partially drain the surface, and to render it fit for the growth of 
sedge ; and within the last century nearly all the surrounding 
fens were further drained and converted into rich cornland. 
Wicken Fen fortunately escaped this fate, but it had a narrow 
squeak for its existence, for a prosperous local agriculturist some 
years ago saw money in it, and set to work to get all the owners 
into line with a view of turning it into country for wheat and 
barley and oats; Mr. Verrall heard of the scheme, and managed 
to purchase a large portion, and it is perhaps needless to say 
this effectually smashed the infamous scheme. 
In addition to sedge the principal crop under present condi- 
tions is a growth of alder, buckthorn, and sallow, and unfor- 
tunately these trees, with others to a less extent, if left to 
themselves would, in the course of a generation, convert the 
whole area into a vast impenetrable thicket which would strangle 
all other growth. ‘To avoid this it is customary for each owner 
to clear his portion every few years, cutting the sedge at the 
same time and grubbing up the roots of the bushes. This 
is a somewhat expensive process, and as several hundreds of 
