1902.] MINUTES. 259 



geographers. Careful analysis and arrangement of the content of 

 the subject is as greatly needed as the exploration of unknown 

 lands. It must be remembered, however, that the object of analysis 

 and classification is to render practical aid in the understanding of 

 geographical items, old and new. There should be no hindrance 

 placed in the way of the active pathfinders who seek to enter un- 

 known lands; but there should be every encouragement given to 

 those who believe that some of the unknown elements of geography 

 may be discovered without going far from home. 



Stated Meeting, April 18, 1902. 



President AYistae in the Chair. 



Present, 16 members. 



Letters accepting membership were read from 



Dr. Jolin A. Brashear, Allegheny, Pa. 



Dr. Andrew Carnegie, New York. 



Prof. William B. Clark, Baltimore. 



Dr. Hermann Collitz, Bryn Mawr. Pa. 



President Arthur T. Hadley, New Haven. 



Prof. George E. Hale, Williams Bay, Wis. 



Dr. C. Hart Merriaixi, Washington. 



Prof. Theodore W. Richards, Cambridge. 



Prof. Felix E. Schelling, Philadelphia. 



Prof. Robert Henry Thurston, Ithaca, N. Y. 



Prof. Robert S. Woodward, New York. 

 Mr. Thomas Willing Balch presented, on behalf of his 

 brother and himself, the MS. account book of the first 

 " Philadelphia Assembly," 1748, and read a note thereon. 



Mr. Alden Sampson read a paper on '' The Ruins of Pal- 

 myra, with a Brief Consideration of the Ancient Estate of 

 that City." 



