Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 161 



Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves. — It will 

 interest Members of the Union to hear that a new Society 

 has recently been formed to encourage the preservation 

 of wild and primitive tracts of the British Islands in their 

 present condition as a refuge for our indigenous fauna and 

 flora. 



Although elsewhere — in the United States^ in New Zealand, 

 and in various parts of Africa — much has been done by the 

 State, in the United Kingdom it has been left to private 

 enterprise and private munificence to establish and finance 

 such refuges and nature-reserves as we at present possess. 

 Something has been attempted, it is true, to check the 

 wanton destruction of animal life by various Acts of 

 Parliament, and we possess in "The National Trust for 

 Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty" (25 Victoria 

 Street, Westminster) a body who have already done much 

 in this direction, although their main efforts have been 

 directed to preserve ancient buildings and areas which are 

 more interesting for their scenery. But they have recently 

 secured to the public a tract of land on the coast of Norfolk, 

 known as Blakeney Point, comprising 1000 acres, the resort 

 and resting-place of large numbers of our migrants, and also 

 a portion of Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire, one of the few 

 regions of undrained fen-land left in England. 



The new Society, which will co-operate with the National 

 Trust, and which is to be called the " Society for the 

 Promotion of Nature Reserves," has been founded with che 

 following objects : — 



1. To collect and collate inforniatiou as to areas of land in the United 

 Kingdom which retain their primitive conditions and contain rare 

 and local species liable to extinction owing to building, drainage, and 

 disatlbrestation, or in consequence of the cupidity of collectors, AH such 

 information to be treated as strictly confidential. 



2. To prepare a scheme showing which areas should be secured. 



3. To obtain these areas and hand them over to the National Trust 

 under such conditions as may be necessary. 



4. To preserve for posterity as a national possession some part at least 

 of our native land, its fauna, flora, and geological features, 



5. To encourage the love of Nature, and to educate public opinion to a 

 better knowledge of the value of Nature study. 



SER. X. VOL. I. M 



