252 ANNUAL REPORT.
the same ; to engage that the Club shall have the sole scientific control of
the Collections, and the appointment of the Curator, and be allowed to keep
its Library in the building ; and to make a grant of not less than £100 per
annum towards the Curatorial expenses, (b) The Club, on its part, will
undertake to place its County Collections, Cases, and Cabinets in the Museum ;
to do its best to increase and improve them; to do its best to raise a suitable
sum for the purchase of cases and specimens; to appoint a Curator, and to
devote a sum of £50 per annum towards the Curatorial expenses. It is
unnecessary to say that if the above plans are adopted the Museum and
Library will be firmly established, and the Club will be enabled to carry on
this important work freed from the cares and embarrassments which have
been so hurtful of late years.
At the present time the Council simply report the above to the members.
Negociations of more than one kind are now pending, but a full state-
ment will be made shortly, and the Club will be asked to come to a decision
on the matter.
The Epping Forest Museum.—The Museum has been carried on
very successfully during the past year, and the average attendance was well
maintained. Many of the visitors appear to take an intelligent interest in the
Museum ; they come time after time, evidently with the intention of gaining
a better acquaintance with the collections exhibited. The repeated visits of
schoolboys from the neighbourhood are to be recorded with satisfaction;
the Curator has noticed the same boys again and again, who brought their
companions, and explained the specimens which had attracted their notice.
Many schools have also attended, as was the case during the previous years,
and the Curator has, on several occasions, been present by request at these
visits to give short expositions of some of the Collections to the pupils.
Again, one very gratifying feature of the year's work was the total absence of
injury to the specimens or cases, and this, in spite of the fact that the
Museum was open on the Bank Holidays, and on these days was thronged
with all classes of visitors.
Pending the possession of more space in the Museum, but little could be
advantageously done in adding to or re-arranging the collections. But the
collections have been carefully attended to and improved from time to time,
and in particular a series showing the peculiarities of the Forest Deer and
the characters of the Red Deer and Roe Deer has been set up. The Com-
mittee have to thank Mr. Tower and the Rev. J. Whittaker Maitland for the
gift and loan of specimens employed in making up the set. Mr. Maitland
has also lent for exhibition a specimen of the Bittern reputed to be the last
specimen of this bird killed on the Forest. In the preparation of these and
other series, the Typewriter purchased towards the end of 1896 has been of
essential service.
Mr. J. A. Clark has removed his specimens of birds, which he so kindly
lent for a period of more than 18 months. He has expressed himself
quite satisfied with the care taken of them while in the Museum. Mr. Clark
has been warmly thanked by the Committee for his valuable aid.
The Committee are sorry to say that Mr. J. Hay Wilson, whose services
have been so useful in gathering together of forest geological and petro-