182 
NATURE NOTES 
information, ready for reference at any moment. During the 
last twelve months I have made no less than 10,000 notes on 
this system in the field, or in my study from old note-books ; 
and since the first sheaf was garnered, every night has found 
them in up-to-date order. What is more, from being in alpha- 
betical order, they are ever in such a form, that if 100,000 more 
sheets should be added to them in the next ten years, only the 
space required by the collection, not the order in which the 
sheets lie, will have to be considered. 
The single-sheet method was, I believe, invented by the late 
H. C. Watson, of Topographical Botany fame. It was the one 
used in writing the first edition of that work ; and a better could 
hardly have been devised. It is simplicity itself ; and is as 
follows : A sheet of ordinary note-paper, torn twice across, 
gives four oblongs just under 3^ by 4! inches. A sheet of 
scribbling or sermon paper, treated in the same way, gives a 
slightly smaller sheet, 3J by 4 inches. A still smaller cardboard 
cutting measure should also be ready at hand for utilising waste 
paper which has one clean side. This should give a sheet a 
little smaller, 3^ by 3^ inches. Why three sizes are recom- 
mended for the sheets of one collection is a matter of practical 
experience. In turning over many thousands of notes, a trifling 
variation in size renders them much more quickly handled, both 
when looking out for use, or when adding further sheets to the 
collection. 
In preparing for field work, take a sheaf of about 200 sheets, 
stiffen the packet by a piece of thick card-board, the same size 
as the sheets, at the front and back. Wrap round, across the 
■shortest way, with two yards of red tape, and link like the old- 
fashioned garter. Then you have ready for use the almost ideal 
note-book. If you never use the same-sized papers two days 
running, your collection of notes will have the three varying 
forms of sheets fairly equally distributed. 
There is only one other matter — the writing. I have tried 
all kinds of pencils, and fountain pens, and find the Eagle 
Automatic indelible copying pencil the best. It is ever ready, 
for a touch with the first finger on the top brings the lead-like, 
solid ink into its proper place at once. It requires no sharpen- 
ing or filling with fluid ink ; and is the most handy, as well as 
■economical means of writing I know of. 
On going out for a walk the tape is simply slipped off the 
sheaf of papers, and relegated, for the time, to the pocket. 
Practically, I never use a tape binder at all, except when out 
for a long day’s walk. When you have more than one sheaf of 
sheets, those not in use must be bound, to distinguish them from 
the working one. In the same way, when a sheaf is filled with 
notes, it must be bound before the next is opened. When 
the instruments of observation are at hand, the first note of the 
day should always be on some such plan as this. A dash [ — ] 
in every case means the ends of lines of writing, and brackets 
