natural history societies of Britain have been canvassed on the
subject of sanctuaries and National Parks. If the evidence they have given could be collected between covers it would make a blue book of singular charm ; but it will never be put into print, for one very good reason. One of the only ways of protecting certain rare flowers and, indeed, animals is to keep utter secrecy. If in this paragraph I were to give the exact locality where, say, a Cheddar pink or the spotted crake were to be found, the pink and crake would inevitably vanish. The mania for collecting seems to be ineradicable. Policing, fencing and ignorance are the only methods of preservation. This unhappy fact is one of the essential difficulties of the National Park. It is necessary to iterate the truth that what is good for the public may be bad for the naturalist.
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