200 MANCHESTER MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.
through the Booking observations.2 It will be interesting in this con-
nection to make known the fact, stated at the Conference by Mr. De
Rance, that the water in the Bocking well is still gradually sinking,
and from its rate of depression it is estimated that it will have returned
to its pre-seismic level about August next. With respect to new
Essex wells we have the satisfaction of knowing that their sections
will be recorded on our behalf by our hon. member, Mr. W. Whitaker,
F.R.S., who has already done us such good service in this direction.
The Erratic Blocks Committee want information as to the position,
size, and character of boulders of foreign origin that may occur in
drift covered areas, a line of work to which our members have not
as yet contributed much—probably from want of material—but I
may venture to suggest that the Rev. A. W. Rowe, F.G.S., of Felstead,
who has long been working at this subject, should give the Committee
the benefit of his experience, if he has not already done so. The
requirements of the Sea Coasts Erosion Committee were fully made
known to us by Mr. Topley, the Secretary of the Committee, in
the paper which he read recently before the Club. I am authorized
to appeal to our members resident on or near the coast for assistance
in this branch of inquiry. Full particulars concerning the work of
all three Committees may be obtained on application to the respective
Secretaries.
Under section D (Biology) a good suggestion was put forward by
Prof. Bayley Balfour, of Oxford, a suggestion which will I hope
bear fruit among our members. Prof. Balfour proposes that field
botanists, instead of devoting all their time and energies to the dis-
covery of new plants and to the preparation of district floras, should
study the life-histories of plants in the field, i.e., their complete
development from the seed up to the production of seed again. The
suggestion was warmly taken up by Mr. C. P. Hobkirk on behalf of
the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, and in our own case we can point
with satisfaction to Mr. R. M. Christy's paper on the genus Primula
in Essex3 as a substantial contribution to one branch of this subject.
The complete communication from Prof. Balfour will appear in
my Official Report, and it may be well to reprint it in the pages of
the Essex Naturalist.
Under Section H (Anthropology) a communication was read from
2 See the "Report on the East Anglian Earthquake" (Essex Field Club Special Memoirs,
vol. i, p. 159-)
3 Trans. Essex Field Club, vol, iii., p. 148.