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Clement was able to give numerous hitherto unpublished details as to the 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 Antarctic 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 attaché 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 Société Helvétique 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 Scventzjic 
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 Cardif’ Natu- 
ralist’s Society for 1897-98, published 1899, 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 
