Natural History. 21 



In connection with our Geological section I would suggest 

 the appointment of a boulder committee, whose object will be 

 to take observations relative to the erratic or ice-borne blocks 

 of Lincolnshire, their character, position, size, origin and 

 height above the sea. This to be carried out on the same 

 lines generally as those adopted by the boulder committee of 

 the British Association. 



The two distinct ranges of chalk and oolite which run from 

 south to north of the county form elevated tracts, which in 

 their original condition were heath and moorland, and almost 

 destitute of timber trees. Along the flanks of these hills and 

 in the intervening low country stretched the deep forests of 

 Kesteven and Lindsey the Bruneswald oak, ash, elm, beech, 

 fir, holly, yew, and hazel, sufficient remains existing in some 

 of our oldest woodlands to recall the ancient glories of the 

 land. No better "happy hunting grounds" remain to reward 

 the naturalist than these comparatively undisturbed areas. 

 Here in 1884 an example of the old British wild cat (Fells 

 catus] was taken, and the pine marten (Martes abietum] can 

 scarcely yet be extinct j bones of red deer, Bos longifrons, 

 wolf, wild boar, and beavers, have been found in the becks. 

 We have as yet no list of Lincolnshire mammals, and I shall 

 be greatly indebted to any of our members who will enable me 

 to complete a list, which is already partially prepared, with 

 notes from their respective districts. 



The heath is another most charming faunal area, from the 

 fact that some few scattered portions are still in their primitive 

 condition, as in the neighbourhood of Woodhall Spa and the 

 warrens and commons of Scotton, Manton, Twigmoor, Crosby 

 and Brumby, in the north-east. The Ermin Street, that great 

 military highway of the Romans, which passed through the 

 gates of their chief fortress, Lincoln, followed the ridge of the 

 oolite from south to north to east and west of this was a 

 wide, open and continuous stretch of elevated tableland, the 

 road running through leagues of purple heather, where the 

 pink and purple shading of the common and cross-leaved 

 heaths intermingled with the yellow blooms of the petty whin 

 and sheets of pale blue hairbell, and the darker blue gentian 

 (Qentiana pneumonanthe). A glorious land it was to cross in 

 those days : the long, lone, level line of a well-kept war path, 

 stretching like a ribbon over the heath, and marked at short 

 intervals with high stones or posts as a guiding line in fog or 

 snow, in a solitude but rarely broken, except by the footfall of 



