The Work and Aims of Corresponding Societies. 373 



issued by the Hertfordshire County Council in 1895 on the 

 representation of the Hertfordshire Natural History Society, the 

 schedule being drawn up by ornithological members of the Society 

 and accepted by the County Council. . . . 



The subject of Museums comes, I think, most appropriately under 

 this Section, for they are of very great educational value. One of 

 the most important committees of the Association was that appointed 

 in 1886, by the co-operation of Sections C and D and the Conference 

 of Delegates, for the purpose of preparing a report on the provincial 

 museums of the United Kingdom. The Committee was very 

 expeditious, thanks to the energy of its Secretary, Mr. F. T. Mott, 

 presenting in the following year a valuable report which appeared in 

 the Report of the Association for 1887 (pp. 97-130) and a further 

 report the next year (Report for 1888, pp. 124-32). In the first 

 report there are tables (I) giving particulars of 211 provincial 

 museums under headings extending across two pages, (II) an 

 approximate estimate of the number of specimens contained in these 

 museums, and (III) a list of collections of special interest indicating 

 the museums in which they are preserved. A large portion of this 

 report is occupied with "Discussion of Details" under thirty-six 

 heads. The second report considers "the ideal to which provincial 

 museums should endeavour to attain", and suggests "practical 

 methods for approaching that ideal". It is not too much to say that 

 these reports are invaluable, not only to those who have the manage- 

 ment of museums, but also to all scientific workers who wish to know 

 where, apart from our national museums, the materials for study in 

 their own branch of science are to be found. 



The Hertfordshire County Museum at St. Albans — the only one 

 with which I am connected — was not then founded, but 1 may 

 mention that it is visited largely by children from the Board Schools 

 in the neighbourhood, who take an intelligent interest in the exhibits, 

 quickly find out accessions, and collect and bring to the Curator 

 objects they wish to know the names of, presenting to the Museum 

 any worthy of acceptance. To young children there is one drawback 

 in a museum, which has been felt at St. Albans: they wish to handle 

 the specimens, rightly judging that by so doing they can learn more 

 about them than by merely looking at them. Every museum should, 

 if possible, have duplicates of the commoner objects, accurately 

 named, to lend to schools. . . . 



In walking over the Welsh hills I have repeatedly come across 

 roots and stumps of trees in the peat-mosses which frequently cover 

 them ; they are evidences of former forests. The land is worthless 

 except for the value of the peat, the removal of which would, for its 

 valuable products, not only as a fuel, well repay the expense, and the 

 ground would be rendered suitable for planting coniferous trees. It 

 is true that most of our peat-covered mountain-land is above the 

 elevation at which it is generally considered that trees will flourish 

 (1,500 feet), but if they did so in the past there seems no reason why 

 they should not do so in the future, for it is far moi'e likely that our 

 climate has become warmer since trees grew on that land than it is 

 that it has become colder. We have also lar°:e areas of waste land 



