12
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
Saturday, March 6th, 1897.
THE 166th Ordinary Meeting of the Club was held by kind per-
mission of the Conductors, in the rooms of the Epping Forest Art and
Science School, Knighton Villas, Buckhurst Hill, at 7 o'clock, Mr. David
Howard, F.C.S., President, in the Chair.
Mr. Reuben Hunt, of Earls Colne, was elected a Member.
It was announced, on the circular calling the meeting, that the Annual
Meeting would be held at the end of March, and in anticipation of it, the
Council's nominations of new members of Council and Officers for 1897 were
made. (See Report of Annual Meeting, page 13).
No other nominations were made, nor had the Secretary received any.
Mr. J. H. Porter gave notice of his intention to move, at the Annual
Meeting, that the entrance fee at present charged, should be abolished.
The Secretary said that this would necessitate the next meeting being
made Special, and it was so ordered.
The Secretary exhibited a fine head of a Buck Fallow Deer, from the
famous herd at Weald Park, kindly presented to the Epping Forest Museum
by Mr. C. ]. H. Tower, for comparison with the race of Forest Deer. The
Secretary pointed out that the Weald Park animals differed somewhat
from the ordinary fallows of (for instance) Richmond Park and other deer
parks. The Secretary also referred to the results of the census of the Deer in
the Forest which had been made by order of the Epping Forest Committee
(see "Notes.")
The President, alluding to the peculiarities of the Epping Forest Deer,
said that he had been surprised to notice that the herd of Deer at Fontainbleau
presented, in the dark form of the adult animals, characters similar to the
forest race. He suggested that these characters were the result of long
isolation and inter-breeding.
A vote of thanks to Mr. Tower for his valuable present was cordially
passed.
In the absence of the Authors, Mr. W. M. Webb, F.L.S., gave an abstract
of a paper on "The Post-Pliocene Non-Marine Mollusca of Essex," by
Mr. A. S. Kennard and Mr. B. B. Woodward, F.L.S., F.G.S., with con-
tributions by Mr. Webb. Mr. Webb made some supplementary remarks on
the subject, and in illustration he exhibited the series of fossil shells in the
Club's collections from Copford, Chignal St. James, Clacton and Ilford, and
also some specimens from a deposit recently discovered at Shalford, Essex, by
the Vicar, the Rev. A. J. Law. As bearing on the matter in hand, the Club's
collection of recent Essex Land and Fresh-water Shells, very neatly put
up in glass-topped boxes by Mr. Mothersole, the Assistant Curator, was
exhibited.
Mr. Cole called attention to the important nature of the paper, as a
careful summary of the knowledge at present possessed of the Post-Pliocene