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SOAR : WATER MITES OF EPPING FOREST. 
death I have been unable to ascertain, but I believe it was in 
or about February 1892. His end was a sad one for a man of 
his tastes and attainments. 
Gibbs formed a somewhat striking figure, well known in 
Chelmsford in his day, chiefly because of his tallness and spareness 
and the fact that he was dressed always in frock-coat and tall 
silk hat. The accompanying portrait of him (for which I am 
indebted to Mr. Mothersole) was taken in 1888. during a 
summer outing of the Chelmsford Odd Volumes. 
Though probably self-educated, Gibbs was a man of real 
ability. His letters to me might have been written by some 
learned professor, so far as anyone could infer from their diction 
and hand-writing. Of botany, his knowledge was very far from 
superficial, though confined in the main to the structure and 
classification of plants. Other branches of the science interested 
him, I fancy, but little. Astronomy was also a study which 
fascinated him, and (to quote his own words) he took “ delight 
in contemplating the heavenly bodies.” The fine collection 
of Essex books brought together by our member, Mr. John 
Avery, contains a complete series of all the booklets and pam¬ 
phlets published by Gibbs of which I know anything. 
Of Gibbs, as of so many such men, one may say that, given 
a more favourable up-bringing and environment, he might 
have attained distinction. 
THE WATER MITES (Hydracarina) OF 
EPPING FOREST. 
P.y CHARLES U. SOAR, F.L.S., F.R.M.S. 
With Illustrations. 
[Read 25 th November 1916.] 
NE of the most delightful and profitable of the naturalist’s 
v_y collecting grounds near London is that part of Essex known 
as Epping Forest. It has been worked b}^ several well-known 
writers on Natural History, and lists have been published giving 
all the known species in several branches of Zoological and 
Botanical study. In Mr. E. N. Buxton’s Guide to the Forest 
(1898), we find lists of all the Vertebrates, Birds, and Flowering 
plants ; also some interesting notes on the Fungi and Pond 
life, by Dr. M. C. Cooke. Elsewhere, the Entomostraca has 
been very fully treated by Mr. D. J. Scourfield. 
