member whose reputation as an entomologist is not only local 

 and national, but world-wide. We must not fail to recognise, 

 also, the good services rendered by Mr. H. W. Kew, formerly 

 of Louth, and Mr. James Eardley Mason, of Alford. 



There is no other faunal area in Lincolnshire where the old 

 glories have so entirely vanished as in the fenland, formerly a 

 vast level of peat-moor, morass and bog, with league beyond 

 league of shallow mere, interspersed with a vast growth of reed 

 and bull rush and various water-loving plants, and on the drier 

 portion deep sedge and doubtless some rich pasturage, with 

 thickets of sallow, willow, birch, and sweet-gale, which before 

 the dawn of history had usurped the place of oak, Scotch fir, 

 and yew. The whole of this vast level was a paradise for wild 

 creatures, beast, bird, and fish, and predominate over all, upon 

 the peat-stained waters of the shallow lagoons floated primitive 

 man in a canoe dug out from a single tree, and using weapons 

 tipped with fractured flint or fish-bone. 



Of the natural treasures of the old fenland we have but 

 scant record. Unfortunately our forefathers, when they did 

 write, cared little for depicting their natural every-day surround- 

 ings, yet we must be thankful for the few precious records which 

 have come down to us of those olden times, and enable us to 

 form some idea of the extreme richness of the Fen fauna and 

 Bora., irom the Liber Eliensis ; the Chronicles of Crowland ; and 

 the writings of William of Malmsbury (1200) ; Thomas Fuller ; 

 Camden's Britannia (Gough's edition) ; and the naturalists 

 Pennant, Ray, and Colonel Montagu ; also the quaint verses left 

 by Michael Drayton in the Polyolbion ; and by " Antiquary 

 Hall," of Llyn, in the doggerel rhymes depicting a fenman's 

 daily life. 



One aim of our Society should be the collection of any scrap, 

 oral or written, in connection with physical-archaeology, and any 

 who have opportunities of inspecting old deeds, letters, and fam- 

 ily account books, will do good service by extracting any small 

 matter which directly or indirectly bears on this subject. Such 

 entries were, no doubt, considered most trivial by the original 

 writers, but in the light of the present day they are of much in- 

 terest and importance. To cite one or two instances alone, how 

 little historical record is left of the Great Bustard in Lincoln- 

 shire. The late Sir Charles Anderson, of Lea, in 1874, sent me 



