676 CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 



he said, could not realise how depressing the effect of smoke was since for some- 

 thing like 300 days of the year the country was deprived of all its beauty. 



Professor F. G. Baily, Edinburgh, who attended as delegate of the Association for 

 the Preservation of Rural Scotland, referred to the water-power scheme operating in 

 the Clyde valley, and said that there were very few waterfalls which were worth 

 utiUsation, and where a waterfall formed an essential part of one of the most beautiful 

 areas near Glasgow it should be left alone. Before thej^ could get local powers for 

 the preservation of amenities they must show a strong popular demand, and they 

 must therefore primarily set themselves to stir up popular demand and popular 

 appreciation towards the importance and improvement or preservation of amenity. 

 To that end he suggested the formation of local associations which would concentrate 

 their activities in their own particular districts. 



Miss R. M. Fleming, speaking for the Geographical Association, said that if 

 children were to be taught how to live as well as how to earn a living, the appreciation 

 of visual beauty must be included in the school curriculum. If the class-room and 

 playground were kept so that the children's sense of beauty did not atrophy during 

 the long school hours, the beauties of the world beyond would be apprehended when 

 pointed out by the teacher. It was specially important that children in rural schools 

 should have their eyes opened to the beauty of their surroundings in order that they 

 might act as its future guardians. Many aspects of city life also had a beauty of 

 their own which it only needed instruction to appreciate. 



Mr. T. Wilfred Jackson (Manchester), representing the Conchological Society of 

 Great Britain, spoke on the subject of preservation of the scenery of Dovedale. 



Dr. E. H. Davison, of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, spoke on the 

 urgent necessity of taking steps to prevent encroachment on right of access to the 

 Coastguard path round the coast of Cornwall. 



Dr. H. Hamshaw Thomas, Cambridge, announced that, as a result of a resolution 

 passed at the conference of delegates last year, the Under-Secretary of State had 

 called a conference to discuss the possibility of devising a more effective form of by- 

 law for the preservation of wild plants in Britain. The following by-law had been 

 approved at that conference : — No person shall (unless authorised by the owner or 

 occupier, if any, or by law so to do) uproot any ferns or other plants growing on any 

 road, land, roadside way, roadside bank, or hedge, common, or other place to which 

 the public have access. ' 



Dr. Thomas pointed out that if local authorities would apply for that by-law it 

 would provide for the first time a means of checking the uprooting of many of our 

 beautiful wayside plants which had been proved to be in great danger of destruction. 

 It had been ascertained, he added, that there was no by-law of this description in 

 Scotland at present, but there could be no doubt that a similar danger existed there. 



Miss Constance Cochrane, Cambridge County Council and Education Com- 

 mittee, spoke of the ready response of school children to instruction in the care of 

 wild flowers. 



The motion that, 



' The British Association for the Advancement of Science should 

 urge His Majesty's Government to stimulate the employment by 

 local authorities of the powers already conferred upon them by 

 Parliament for the preservation of scenic amenity in town and 

 country,' 

 was then put from the Chair and carried unanimously. 



Session of September 1 1 . 



The second and concluding session of the conference of delegates, 

 which had for its object the support of the movement for preserving the 

 scenic amenity of the English Lakeland and its environs, was made an 

 open meeting for all members of the British Association. Having regard 



