1899] NEWS 77 



The Reception Rooms will be at Dover College, in the old building of the 

 Priory, close to the Priory Station (L.C.D. Railway), and within a few minutes' 

 walk of the Sectional meetings, most of which are arranged to take place in the 

 Municipal Technical Schools and adjoining buildings. 



From the unique character of the meeting and the historical importance of 

 the town in which it is held, a large attendance is expected. 



At the annual meeting of the Royal Geographical Society Sir Clement 

 Markham reviewed the geographical work of the past twelve months. In the 

 course of his summary, Sir Clement touched on most parts of the earth's surface, 

 and paid in passing a compliment to Major Marchand, the scientific results of 

 whose journey across Africa could not, he said, fail to be very important. Sir 

 Clement was able to give numerous hitherto unpublished details as to the 

 progress of the Southern Cross expedition, of which Mr. Borchgrevinck is in 

 command, but his main references to the Antai'ctic referred to the national 

 expedition which is being organised under the joint auspices of the Royal and 

 the Royal Geographical Societies. With obvious gratification he also referred 

 to the establishment of a geographical school at the University of Oxford as 

 " crowning the edifice of the Society's educational policy." The President was 

 also able to announce the completion of a task of great magnitude and import- 

 ance, in which the Society's librarian, Dr. Hugh Robert Mill, has been engaged 

 for some years past — a complete geographical catalogue. This catalogue is a 

 practically exhaustive list of the literature of every part of the earth's surface. 

 It contains at present 100,850 cards, and is, of course, only available in the 

 library of the Society, but it is to be hoped that it may at no very distant date 

 be printed, and so made available for students generally. Another work of 

 great utility to which Sir Clement referred was the preparation of an authori- 

 tative list of geographical terms, with definitions. To effect this, a special 

 Nomenclature Committee has been appointed, and when its work is completed 

 many persons besides professional geographers will have reason to be grateful. 

 Unfortunately, neither of the gold medallists of this year could attend person- 

 ally, Mr. Foureau being far away in the heart of Africa, and Captain Binger too 

 much occupied with his duties at the French Colonial Office to come to London ; 

 so the medals were received on their behalf by the military attache of the 

 French Embassy. Another medal was presented — the gold medal of the 

 American Geographical Society — which the American Ambassador handed to Sir 

 John Murray, in recognition of his many brilliant services to geographical 

 science. 



The International Hydrographic and Biological Congress, which is to discuss 

 the arrangement of periodical researches into the conditions of the North Sea 

 and North Atlantic, was opened at Stockholm on June 16. 



The Societe Helvetique des Sciences Naturelles will meet at Neuchatel 

 from July 31 to August 2. A due proportion of discourses and excursions are 

 intimated. 



At the Geographical Congress at Berlin, this summer, the languages to be 

 used will be limited to English, French, German, and Italian. The Scientific 

 American notes a protest in the review published by the Madrid Geographical 

 Society against the exclusion of the Spanish language, in view of the fact that 

 it was spoken by most of the discoverers and colonists of a large part of the 

 world. The writer says, if more geographers were able to read Spanish they 

 would not from time to time bring forth facts as new which were printed in 

 Spanish books two or three centuries ago. 



The thirtieth volume of the Report and Transactions of the Cardiff Natu- 

 ralist's Society for 1897-98, published 1S99, as is so lamentably common in 

 such cases (though in this case the delay is said to be accidental), has not been 

 sent to us, which seems to us a mistake on the Society's part. It affords 



