98 IVzld Life around Edinburgh. [Sess. 



the view of its being placed upon the Statute Book. It is 

 generally understood that the hands of the Government will 

 be sufficiently full for the next few years, ... so that there 

 will be little opportunity for the introduction of any such 

 grandmotherly legislation." ^ 



IX.~IFJLD LIFE ABOUND EDINBURGH. 



By Mr CHARLES CAMPBELL. 



{Read March 23, 1904.) 



It has ever been ray good fortune to live in the country, while 

 the operation of that great law of nature, the struggle for ex- 

 istence, compels me to spend most of my time in town. But 

 in what leisure time I have had, nothing has given me greater 

 pleasure than roaming through the woods and watching the 

 humble life there, or wandering far out on the sands to list 

 the sea birds' cry. Even in uiy daily journeyings to and 

 from the city I was never out of touch with nature, for 

 whether in the summer morning when the spiders' webs by 

 the way-side glisten with dew, or in winter when the hoar- 

 frost or a gentle fall of snow transformed the bleak landscape 

 into a fairyland, there was always something interesting to 

 see or hear. But the city is ever creeping outwards, and the 

 face of the country is gradually being changed, and with it of 

 necessity the number and character of its humbler creation. 

 I am referring only to the district west of Edinburgh, with 

 which I am best acquainted, and I have in my mind's eye 

 one little spot which will no doubt before many years be 

 coloured within the municipal boundaries. If ever the much- 

 talked-of zoological garden for the city of Edinburgh comes 

 to be an accomplished fact, I have often thought this would 

 form an ideal corner of it. I refer to the marl pit near 



^ Notwithstanding Mr Speedy's views in regard to the introduction of tliis 

 bill, it has already passed, and all humanitarians will rejoice to know that the use 

 of the pole-trap is now absolutely illegal. — Ed. 



