REPORTS OF MEETINGS
January 30th. General Meeting No. 1168
About 25 members and friends were present at West Ham
to hear Mr. J.A.B. Hibbs of the City of London University
give an interesting talk on the development of bus services
in Essex. He started with an historical review, tracing
the stage coach and other road services in existence before
the coming of the Railways. He then went on to recount how
road services practically disappeared by 1890. He then
traced the revival of road services by means of road vehicles
up to the present situation where once again public road
services are beginning to be cut back through competitions
this time from privately owned motor cars. One interesting
fact emerged that it is possible today to purchase a
directory and timetable of stage coach services for the year
1836: such a publication, which would have been very useful
at the time, was not available and only compiled in 1969.
Peter Glassborow
February 6th. Annual General Meeting of the Mammal Group
Fifteen members attended; Mr. David Scott took the
chair. After the official business,, members notes and
exhibits followed, with Paul Carter speaking about current
research being carried out by the Wellcome Institute on
delayed implantation in stoats. Stephen Harris then said
a few words about the state of the mammal surveys and how
records were still required in order to compare maps of the
seventies with those of the sixties.
Bob Cowlin then showed some slides and spoke about the
use of pitfall traps for catching shrews. Next was a slide
competition. Entry was limited to photographs of British
mammals taken during 1970. Here were some excellent slides
amongst the 22 entries, and the meeting chose one by
Stephen Harris as the best. He was presented with a film
by Brian Eastcott on behalf of the Essex Mammal News.
David Corke showed a selection of slides taken during
his recent trip to East Africa. (continued on Page 18)
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