372 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— E. 



Monday, September 14. 



Dr. Vaughan Cornish. — National parks and the preservation of nature in 

 England (io.o). 



The hand of man has added much to the beauty of the landscape, both 

 by the cultivation of nature and by architectural construction. But in 

 order that the scenery of civilisation may be satisfying to the aesthetic sense 

 there must be a suitable relation between the works of man and their natural 

 setting and background, and in a country so densely peopled as England 

 there is a serious risk of the scenic environment becoming unduly artificial. 

 In fact, in the industrial towns which grew up in the nineteenth century 

 nature was practically expelled and the townsman lived in a mechanical 

 desert. 



The recent Town and Country Planning Act has given local authorities 

 extensive powers for preserving rural and restoring urban amenities. The 

 tasks involved are extremely various, and in many cases can only be success- 

 fully accomplished in consultation not only with members of the archi- 

 tectural profession but with specialists in many branches of natural science. 

 This is particularly the case in regard to the preservation of rare species of 

 plants and animals. The archaeologist must also be called in to advise on 

 matters relating to historic and prehistoric monuments. 



In the present paper the attention of local authorities will be drawn to 

 the societies and institutions (many of them affiliated to the British Associa- 

 tion) in conjunction with which it is desirable that local authorities should 

 draw up their planning schemes. The author goes on to point out that for 

 the preservation of an adequate background of nature in England something 

 more is needed than can be achieved by the provisions of the Town and 

 Country Planning Act — namely, the reservation of several large areas as 

 National Parks. Neither the best choice of areas nor their proper adminis- 

 tration can be ensured except under a National Authority specially 

 constituted. 



In fact the time has come for the establishment of a Board of Scenery, 

 on which the learned societies should be represented, charged with the 

 administration of national parks and the supervision of planning schemes 

 not only of local authorities but also of Government departments. The 

 latter are specially in need of co-ordination and control in the interests of 

 scenic amenity. 



Prof. W. H. Hobbs. — The physical solution of some vexed problems of dis- 

 covery within the polar regions (10.45). 



Peculiar to the polar regions is a frequent condition of major inversion 

 within the lower fifteen hundred metres of the troposphere, which has now 

 been confirmed by many balloon investigations. This inversion and the 

 freedom of these air layers from dust or moisture accounts for an extreme 

 visibility and a looming, superior mirage, sufficient to bring into view objects 

 which are far below the natural horizon. The distance at which elevated 

 features may at such times be viewed is sometimes in excess of 200 geo- 

 graphical miles. By this is explained the astonishing underestimates of 

 distance which have been made by well-known explorers, and the fact that 

 land which they had mapped has been so often sailed over by later ex- 

 plorers. Critical examples of this from the major polar expeditions are 

 cited, and a probable explanation is furnished for a puzzling problem in 

 polar exploration still unsolved. 



