34 THE ESSEX NATURALIST
keeping something in a fixed condition for their delectation is a certain
amount of temporary disfigurement.
Of the other four ponds reported on, Fairmead Old Elm is expected to
come under treatment next season, and it will be interesting to see whether
the comparatively simple adjustments suggested in this case (digging out of
the west end and banking up of the east) will restore it to the condition of
some years ago when it was much deeper and less rushy.
All these ponds are being kept under observation, and in addition teams or
individuals are studying the Wake Valley (51/421988), Lodge Road swamp
(51/431999), and Knighton Wood middle level (51/408933). Maps of a few
others have been made and await passing out to the respective teams.
Some account of the organization of the Survey might perhaps be of
interest. The basic unit is the team of pond surveyors, many of whom are
complete novices, but usually including one or two members of wider ex-
perience. (From the start it was realised that the Survey must rely largely on
the services of completely inexpert people.) A panel of more experienced
"general sorters" was set up to receive specimens from the teams and forward
them to appropriate members of a much larger panel of specialists for final
determination. In this way it is hoped that even the rawest recruit can make an
adequate contribution to knowledge. For general advice at the pond margin
on its soil and geology, its plant communities and its chemistry—matters
where the novice will need considerable guidance—three "roving commis-
sioners" were asked to visit each pond from time to time by arrangement with
the leader of its team.
It is early yet to attempt a considered judgment of the working of the
Survey, but some straws can be seen in the wind. First it is clear that the
director must have a considerable fund of leisure by means of which to keep a
constant stream of material going out to the teams and in which to cope with
a correspondence which can be as large as he likes to make it. The impact
upon the writer of additional academic work this season has virtually pre-
cluded this since midsummer and the result has been an almost total stoppage
of information coming in from the ponds; it is manifest that half the task of
the director must be to "chase up" his volunteers and keep them on their toes
since, like himself and any other person with a living to earn and other
responsibilities, they will find it only too easy to let things slide. Some team
leaders are known to have sheaves of reports in hand, but have not yet sent a
single one to headquarters; others have—as must happen at times—resigned
and there has been difficulty in finding a substitute; others supply much
information verbally, but betray a marked disinclination to write it down—
and it is impossible for the director to act as shorthand copyist for the entire
Survey!
Such are some of the difficulties that indicate how much time the person
responsible ought—ideally—to have. That is not to say the Survey cannot
succeed without it and in the new season it is hoped to apply the lessons of the
old. The organization has shown itself more than adequate to cope with the
information; rather is it a matter of stepping up the volume of information to
the point where the organization is fully used.
It would be ungrateful to conclude without an expression of thanks to all
those members and others taking part, in whatever capacity (including those
who so patiently "stand and wait"), and the Club owes a particular debt to the
Nature Conservancy for the loan of a magnificent map of the plant com-
munities of Epping Forest specially copied for the Survey from the original by
Dr. A. J. Rutter with his kind consent. The writer would also like to acknow-
ledge the work of a team of geographers from S.W. Essex Technical College
Field Club, who, by doing the initial physiographic mapping of a number of
ponds, have saved him personally a great deal of work—and have incidentally
done it far more accurately. Lastly, the splendid and encouraging work of the
Baldwins team in the weeks prior to clearing deserves mention in the records.