ANNUAL REPORT.
245
works at Tottenham and Walthamstow—the arrangements made by Mr.
Sharrock for the comfort of the Members were most thorough and welcome.
At the Annual Cryptogamic Meeting on October 12th we again secured the
ever welcome assistance of Dr. M. C. Cooke and Mr. G. Massee and Prof.
Marshall Ward gave an inspiring address on the "Scientific Study of Fungi."
At the Ordinary Meeting in October, Prof. Meldola gave a lecture on
"Mimetic Insects," which was admirably illustrated by a very fine series of
lantern slides, many of them produced by the Sanger-Shepherd process of
photography in colour, the specimens from which they were taken having
been arranged by Prof, E. B. Poulton, of the Hope Museum, Oxford.
The papers read at the meetings have been, or will be, published in our
journal.
Although a matter hardly officially connected with our Field Meetings,
the Council cannot refrain from recording the very kind invitation for the
meeting at Bigods on July 24th given to the members of the Club by the
Countess of Warwick, which was highly appreciated by those who accepted
the invitation.
The Council also wish again to record their high appreciation of the
valuable facilities for holding meetings in the Institute granted by the
Technical Instruction Committee of the Borough of West Ham, And the
kindness of the Principal, Mr. Briscoe, has been most marked during the year,
enabling our meetings to be carried with a facility and success not to be
equalled in the history of the Club.
Essex Naturalist.—Three parts of the journal were published during
the year, comprising 234 pages, with six full-page plates and numerous other
illustrations. The Council has to thank Mr. F. W. Reader for several
valuable blocks, for much care taken in copying drawings for re-production
and generally in assisting the editor in preparing matter for the press ; also
Mr. H. A. Cole for drawing of the Dug-out Boat discovered in the Alluvium
of the Lea Valley.
The somewhat irregular appearance of the Essex Naturalist is still
a source of great regret to the editor, but he hopes to remedy this soon, as
the pressure of other work in connection with the two museums is lessened.
But the amount of matter issued is evidently almost the maximum which the
present financial resources of the Club will permit. There appears to be no
falling off in the number of papers of real scientific and local interest sent in,
and if it were in our power to print them many others would doubtless be sub-
mitted. The editor would also like to have a few illustrations in colour
occasionally and to make the records of local scientific events occurring
within our districts more systematic and complete. But this is impossible,
from the cause hinted at above. We can only have faith and await the
"Good time coming." At present the hope seems bound up with an increase
of membership. One hundred more members would enable us to nearly
double the present issue of the Naturalist and to mould it more into the
form of a quarterly journal of Natural History in a wide sense of these
words.
Essex Museum of Natural History.—The history of affairs at the
Museum was brought up to the end of 1900 in the last report, and a full
account of the opening of the Museum to the public on October 18th, 1901,