204 A Second Experiment in Ecological Surveying. 
istic samples of vegetation, etc. Two artists, who devoted them¬ 
selves to sketching in water-colour characteristic salt-marsh 
landscapes, also joined the party. During the progress of the work 
it became apparent that some of these departments, particularly 
the estimations of salt and wetness of soil, should have been more 
carefully organised, and it is hoped to return to the area next year 
with the object of obtaining far more complete data on these 
points. Meanwhile the construction of the map and the correla¬ 
tion of the data already obtained will be proceeded with, and 
in the light of the results arrived at, an organised scheme for the 
supplementary work required will be drawn up. The “gridiron” 
work was mostly carried out by six members of the party who 
remained for some days after the end of the fortnight. 
The expedition was by no means devoid of more or less 
humorous incident. Permission was obtained from the French 
Government, through the Foreign Office and the British Embassy 
in Paris, to carry on the work of surveying. Owing to an error in 
the transmission of instructions from Paris, the mayor of one of 
the communes in which the estuary is situated, refused to allow 
the work to proceed on one side of the river, and this necessitated 
a certain re-adjustment of arrangements, and much telegraphing, 
before progress could be made. Subsequently some rather officious 
French visitors to a neighbouring resort conceived it to be their 
duty to interfere and protest against the evidently nefarious designs 
of the party upon the well-being of the Republic, cunningly con¬ 
cealed by the pretext of botanical investigation. The connexion of 
surveying and levelling instruments with Botany was, not unnaturally, 
far from obvious to their apprehension. The local officials were, 
however, able to set the minds of these anxious patriots at rest, 
and the party proceeded without further interruption, beyond 
the inconvenience caused by the irresistable fascination which 
the pulling up of flagged sticks exercised upon some of the 
younger members of the local peasantry and fisher-folk. The 
opportunity of acquiring for nothing a number of fine bamboo poles 
was also not without its attraction to some of their elders. These 
experiences, however, though rather disconcerting, could no doubt 
be avoided by a little judicious arrangement beforehand. For the 
most part the expedition met with much kindness and courtesy 
from the local officials and population. 
1 he experiment, in its way rather ambitious, may be said, on 
the whole, to have been an unequivocal success. 
R. MADLEY, PRINTER, WHITFIELD STREET, LONDON, W. 
