March 8, 1883] 
NAT ORE 
447 
loff is spending a third year in the exploration of the Northern 
Ural. After having explored the river Lala under 59° N. lat., 
where he discovered layers of spherosiderites which were not 
yet known on the eastern slope of the Ural Mountains, he ex- 
plored the banks of the Sosva—their geolozical structure, and 
the koorgans that are met with in its basin, as well as the fauna 
and flora of the region, In 1882 he visited the banks of the 
Lozva and Sosva, and the old mines of this locality, and made 
large geological, botanical, and ethnographical coll?ctions. He 
followed the Lozva to its junction wi‘h the Tavda, and went up 
the Sosva. The collections brought home by M. Nasiloff are 
now in the Mining Institute, in the St. Petersburg University, 
and in the Geographical Society. Another member of the 
Geographical Society, M. Malakhoff, continued his zoological 
and ethnographical re-earches on the Middle Ural. He explored 
the lake-dwellings discovered in the neighbourhood of Ekaterin- 
burg, and, together with a member of the Mineralozical Society, 
explored the 3000 feet high mountain, Kachkanar, making there 
interesting collections of plants and insects. Later on in the 
summer he visited the districts of Irbit, Ekaterinburg, and 
Trvitsk, and discovered close by Irbit very interesting accumula- 
tions of bones, lake-dwellings on Lake Ayat, containing large 
implements of slate, and finally stone and bone implements in a 
cavern close by the Mias ironworks. At Lake Bagaryak he 
discovered interesting furms for casting animal and human 
figures during the prehistoric epoch. 
HARTLEBEN of Vienna has published a unique little work by 
Dr, Jos. Chavanne, on ‘‘ Afrika’s Stréme and Fliisse,” in which 
the author briefly surveys the hydrography of Africa as far as 
recent discoveries have furnished them. The book is accom- 
panied by a well-drawn hydrographical map. 
In the March number of Hartleben’s Deuls-he Rundschau for 
geography and statistics, Dr. Chavanne has a sketch of the pro- 
gress of discovery in Africa during 1882. There are interesting 
biographies, with portraits, of General Strelbitski and the late 
Prof. Henry Draper. 
THE following papers will be read at the thir] German ‘‘ Geo- 
graphentag,” which will be held at Frankfort-on-the-Maine on 
the 29th-31Ist inst :—On the importance of Polar research to geo- 
graphical science, by Prof. Ratzel (Munich) ; on the commercial 
conditions of South Africa, by Dr. Buchner (Munich); on 
the significance of the International Colonial Exhibition at 
Amsterdam with regard to geographical science, by Prof. Kan 
(Amsterdam) ; on the reciprocal relations of climate and the 
shape of the earth’s surface, by Dr. Penck (Munich); on the 
means of determining the geographical position at the time of 
great discoveries, by Dr. Brensing (Bremen); on the latest 
efforts made to determine more accurately the shape of the earth, 
by Dr. Giinther (Ausbach); memoir of Emil von Sydow, by 
Dr. Cramer (Gebweiler) ; on topography as an introduction to 
geography, by Dr. Finger (Frankfort); on the pedagogic 
requirements and principles in drawing wall-maps for the use of 
schools, by Herr Coordes (Cassel); on the method: of repre- 
senting various; objects on maps, by Prof. Jaroslaw Zdenck 
(Prague); on the Prussian teachinz order and examination with 
reference to geographical instruction, by Dr. Kropatschek 
(Brandenburg) ; on the geographical handbooks of M. Neander, 
by Dr. Votsch (Gera). Three other highly interesting papers 
are also promised, viz. notes fron his botanical journeys in 
Tropical America extending over five years, by F. R. Lehmann ; 
on the Balkan Mountains, by Prof. Toula (Vienna); and a 
report on his great journey across Africa, by Lieut. Wissmann. 
NEws from Zanzibar, dated November 8, 1882, brings the 
sad announcement of the death of Dr. Kayser, who had been 
sent by the German African Society to their station on the 
shores of Lake Tanganyika, together with Drs. Boehm and 
Reichard, and who had left his station and was on his way to 
the Gold Coast. 
THE CONSERVATION OF EPPING FOREST 
FROM THE NATURALISTS’ STANDPOINT:« 
“HE great expanse of primitive woodland in the immediate 
_heighbourhood of East London declared ‘‘open” to the 
j ublic on May 5, 1882, by Her Majesty the Queen, should be 
* Being a paper read before the Essex Field Club, at the meeting held on 
February 24, by Raphael Meldola, vice-president of the Club. 
regarded as one of the numerous bequests to posterity marking 
the enlightenment of our times. The feelings leading to the 
agitation for the preservation of open spaces in and around the 
metropolis are sure indications on the part of the public of a 
recognition of the necessity for protecting and conserving our 
common lands for outdoor recreation—a recognition which must 
be considered as marking a decided advancement in the ideas of 
the British holiday-maker. If we compare a map of the en- 
virons of London of, say, twenty years ago, with the actual state 
of the country at the present time, it will be seen that large 
tracts of open land have disappeared; shady coppices and 
furze-clad heaths have been inclosed and built upon, and the 
country-loving Londoner has had to go further and further afield 
for his rambles. If it is obviously true that increased pressure 
of population demands more dwelling accommodation, it is 
equally true that a denser population requires more open spaces. 
The indifference of the public in former times to their own 
rights and to the wants of their successors is naturally making 
itself more and more seriously felt with a rapidly augmenting 
population and a corresponding spread of buildings. The 
formation of such public bodies as the Commons Preservation 
Society and the Epping Forest Fund was a healthy sign that 
people were beginning to be alive to the gravity of the situation, 
and we may now fairly say that rural London is on the defen- 
sive. The remarks which I am about to offer on the present 
occasion are based on an unpublished article written many 
months ago, when that wooded area in which our interest as a 
society centres was threatened by tramway invasion. The with- 
drawal of the Great Eastern Railway Company’s bill for extend- 
ing their line from Chingford to High Beech in 1881, and the 
apparent collapse of the tramway scheme ha led to the hope 
that the ‘‘ people’s forest” would remain unmolested, and that 
the Epping Forest Act of 1878 would be carried out in spirit 
and in letter. But unfortunately new grounds of alarm have 
recently arisen, and our honorary secretaries, to whom I 
showed the original manuscript, did me the honour of thinking 
that the views which I had expressed would still be found to be 
in accordance with those of our own and kindred societies. 
Like other open tracts in the metropolitan district, the great Wal- 
tham Forest, which comprised the forests of Epping and Hainault, 
was rapidly undergoing absorption. From the report of the Select 
Committee of the House of Commons presented in 1863, it appears 
that of the 9000 acres which constituted the Forest in 1793, 
only 6000 acres then remained uninclosed. In 1871, when the 
Corporation of London took up the Forest question, this area 
had been reduced to 3500 acres. I do not here propose to 
trouble you again with the now familiar history of the rescue of 
this picturesque remnant of primeval Britain (see Mr. J. T. 
Bedford’s ‘‘ Story of the Preservation of Epping Forest,” Czty 
Press Office, 1882). The work—commenced more than a decade 
ago by the Corporation of London—received its crowning reward 
at the late Royal visitation. We shall the more appreciate the 
results of the action taken by the Corporation when we bear in 
mind that the total area dedicated to the public last May is very 
nearly equal to the expanse of 6000 acres reported upon by the 
Select Committee of 1863. But whilst expressing the gratitude 
of metropolitan field naturalists generally for the restoration of 
one of their largest and most accessible hunting grounds, it cer- 
tainly does seem to me that the shout of triumph raised by the 
Conservators has been allowed to drown the smaller voices of 
those who had previously demonstrated to certain rapacious lords 
of manors by somewhat forcible means that a ‘‘ neighbour’s 
landmark ” was not a movable thing. It must not be forgotten 
that prior to the year 1871, besides many vigorous individual 
prctests, both the Commons Preservation Society and the 
Epping Forest Fund had declared war against illicit inclosure. 
The restoration of the Forest to the people has cost a sum of 
money considerably exceeding a quarter of a million pounds 
sterling, and it will be generally admitted that this amount has 
been well if not wisely spent in the public cause. There are no 
doubt many who have suffered by their own cupidity, or by that 
of former manor lords, who still feel aggrieved at the action of 
the Corporation, and it must indeed be conceded that many 
whose estates have suffered curtailment have been the un- 
conscious receivers of illegally acquired property and are thus 
deserving of commiseration, The principles involved in the 
conflict between public rights on the one hand and manorial 
actions on the other are of the very deepest importance to the 
community at large, and it is therefore no matter of sur- 
prise that the ‘‘ Forest Question’’ should have acquired 
