136 Address to the L.N.U. 
we still require much further knowledge and more scientific in- 
vestigations. ‘The capture of a seal or the stianding of a whale 
—and such occurrences are by no means unfrequent—should at 
once be noted, and an examination carried out on the spot, care- 
ful notes and measurements made, the skull, at least, preserved, 
and where possible a photograph taken before the carcase is 
removed. In this branch of zoology as well as ornithology, the 
oficial representative of our Vertebrate Section, Mr. G. H. Caton 
Haigh, has done some excellent work. ‘There is, so far as I 
know, no list of marine fish ; the collection of facts in connection 
with these and with Marine Zoology generaily, might well be 
taken up by those members who live near or have most frequent 
access to the coast. The Entomology, more particularly in this 
district the Aquatic-entomology, Conchology, and Micro-zoology 
and Botany, also present wide fields for close and careful study. 
In the former we have in the Rev. Canon W. W. Fowler, a 
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, interspered 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 
cauoe 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 surroundings, yet we 
must be thankful for the few precious records which haye come 
