104
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
lake-deposits at Hoxne and the sub-Crag deposit containing
rostro-carinate implements north-west of Ipswich. The case
of the inter-glacial lake-like area cast of Ipswich, from which
Miss Layard and others obtained remarkable collections of
Acheulian and other implements and which had now been built
over, was cited as a warning that we should act now as trustees
for the future. "For our duty as trustees lies clear before us
if only we adopt the view that, by acting now to safeguard sites
"of scientific interest, we are in effect taking steps to preserve
"some of the very title-deeds of our intellectual possessions."
Two resolutions were then approved as under:—
Resolved:—That this Conference of Delegates of Societies
in correspondence with the British Association for the Advance-
ment of Science assembled at Norwich welcomes the facilities
afforded by the Town and Country Planning Act, 1932, for the
preservation of individual sites and objects of scientific interest,
but views with grave apprehension the indiscriminate building
development over wider areas of exceptional natural beauty
and scientific importance; and requests the Council of the
Association to represent to H.M. Government the urgent necessity
for taking immediate steps to schedule such areas, as recommended
by the National Parks Committee (Report, Section 28 b), 1931,
to be developed as National Parks.
Resolved:—To call the attention of the respective Councils
for the Preservation of Rural England, Scotland and Wales to
the. serious effects upon the insectivorous bird population through
the cutting of hedgerows during the breeding season, and the
consequent destruction or desertion of the birds' nests; and
recommends that the said Councils urge upon local administrative
authorities the desirability of suspending such operations
during the nesting period.
Mr. L. Dudley Stamp next gave details of the work of the
Land Utilisation Survey of Britain. He explained that the
main object of the survey was to record the present use of every
acre of England, Wales and Scotland. The work has been done
entirely by volunteers drawn from universities, colleges, schools
and local societies. Nearly 95 per cent. of the country had been
covered and they were now struggling to get the last 5 per cent.
undertaken. Twenty sheets of maps printed by the Ordnance
Survey arc now on sale. Comparison with the past suggested