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Peacock : Naturalists at Lincoln. 



for a whole day just after their annual holiday, and with 

 others that holiday was still in progress. The membership of 

 the two societies now reached the respectable figure of 223, and 

 he hoped that with this growing- force something would soon be 

 done to g"ive science, both natural and physical, in Lincolnshire, 

 first, a permanent home, secondly, the means of making useful 

 observations, and thirdly, of recording them. The first required 

 the establishment of a museum, which would at once be a 

 memorial of the great men who had been born and lived in - 

 Lincolnshire, amongst whom he might be allowed to mention 

 Sir Isaac Newton, Sir John Franklin, Lord Tennyson, and one 

 who was working 1 amongst them only a few months since, 

 their first President, the late eminent ornithologist, Mr. John 

 Cordeaiix. Relics and specimens of the life work of such men, 

 open for the inspection of the public, appealed to and stirred 

 the spirit of ambition and emulation in talented young men and 

 women far more powerfully than statues and memorial windows, 

 whose very familiarity begot forgetfulness. As a repository of 

 specimens of the fast disappearing fauna and flora of our 

 former fen country, of specimens of local antiquarian interest, 

 of specimens bearing on the technique of our local arts and 

 manufactures, a museum worthy of our great county would 

 soon become invaluable. Next month the county authorities, 

 whose public-minded generosity has already enabled the Museum 

 Committee to store many valuable specimens in the Castle 

 buildings, will consider an application for space within the Old 

 Keep to erect buildings for an Observatory for the reception of 

 astronomical instruments offered to the county, and for a mete- 

 orological station, the usefulness of which to the county and 

 country at large would be difficult to over-estimate, for correct 

 records of wind pressure, of barometric pressure, of local 

 rainfall, and of earth and atmospheric temperatures are among 

 the necessities of our daily life. Although, said Dr. Lowe, the 

 situation from our point of view almost amounts to a crisis, we 

 have the satisfaction of knowing that we are in the hands, not 

 of a French tribunal, but of the representatives of the rate- 

 payers of the county. 



* The work of the geologists was reported by Mr. H. 

 Preston, F.G.S., as follows: — 



The Geological party, under the guidance of Rev. E. Nelson 

 and Mr. Henry Preston, F.G.S., visited the brick pits of Mr. 

 Handley and the Lincoln Brick Co., recently known as Swan's 

 pit. In the latter pit the various zones of the Upper Lias were 



Naturalist, 



