90 ANNUAL REPORT.
collections which we hope to have in the museum in addition to the local series.
The Council have pleasure in acknowledging specimens of small collections from
Mr. J. E. Harting, Mr. H. Seton-Karr, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Kennard, Mr.
Goodchild, Mr. F. C. J. Spurrell, Dr. A. Wilson, Messrs. W. and B. G. Cole,
and others. Mrs. Sewell presented the herbarium of her late husband, our
member, Mr. A. S. Sewell, to the Club's museum. Very considerable alterations
and additions have been made, but it will be better to defer a description of these
until the Curator can report a closer realization of the "idea" of the museum.
It is anticipated that most of the public collections will be at least temporally
arranged by the close of 1903. The Curator takes this opportunity of again
emphasising the really urgent necessity of systematic collecting, especially of
marine and coast forms of life. The assistance he receives from members and
others is too sporadic. It is much to be wished that some of our younger
members would take up definite groups, and endeavour to collect for the museum
good and authentic Essex specimens in such groups. This would confer great
benefits both upon themselves and upon the museum, and the assistance they
could claim from head-quarters in the determination of and information about
specimens in their own collections would compensate them for the slight
additional trouble. But above all we need explorations carried out by the Club
itself; until we are able to do this our museum will not progress at the rate all
well-wishers desire. And at the present time one great need of the museum is
extensive cabinet accommodation; we have at present many thousand specimens
awaiting systematic arrangement and cabinet space, and the need will rapidly
grow in dxtent and exigence. How to obtain these costly cabinets is a problem
that must be faced in the near future. The most notable presents to the library
were the Handbook of British Birds from Mr. Harting, Gilberd's De Magnete
from Professor Meldola, and the supplemental volume of the same from Professor
Silvanus Thompson. From the executors of our late member Mr. Augustus
Cunnington, we have received the posthumous privately printed catalogue of his.
Essex library.
Epping Forest Museum.—This institution has been a source of considerable
anxiety to the Council and the Curator. The re-fitting with new cases, and the
restoration of the old ones, is now completed, but the heavy cost of this work has
exhausted the funds in hand. It is imperative, in view of the Club's agreement
with the Corporation, that the re-arrangement of the Museum should be proceeded
with at once. The Club's Epping Forest Museum Committee have this matter in
hand, but it is manifest that further subscriptions are necessary. About £150
would finish the collections in hand, and furnish several cases of mammals and
birds, mounted with natural surroundings, a kind of exhibition which appears to
be necessary for the popular appreciation of the Museum. This is all that need be
said at present; it is probable that a public meeting will be called in the early
summer, in order to place the facts of the case and the needs of the institution
clearly before the members and the inhabitants of the Forest districts.
Conference Meeting.—The joint meeting of the three "East
Anglian" Societies, proposed at Ipswich, fell through mainly by reason of the
heavy charge for a steamer. After much correspondence, our Secretary is reluc-
tantly compelled to admit that he sees little hope at present of a combined action
in the way of publication. Efforts should be concentrated in endeavours to estab-
lish an annual or biennial meeting of the Societies for mutual encouragement and
discussion. In connection with the Conference of Corresponding Societies at the