296 NATURAL SCIENCE [November 
we suffer from a superabundance of names. But it is to be hoped 
that the promulgation of these rules will not call into existence an 
army of nomenclaturists, whose delight it will be to search antique 
literature for forgotten appellations, or to puzzle their brains with 
lexicons in the attempt to make all names pass the same etymo- 
logical standard. We have enough of this sort of thing in system- 
atic biology, and we don’t want any more of it. 
After the Congress about half the members took part in the 
various excursions that culminated in the Caucasus and the Crimea. 
The Carboniferous rocks of the Moscow neighbourhood, the Permian 
of Nijni-Novgorod, the Mesozoic and Cainozoic strata of the Volga 
and Donetz basins were introduced to the foreign geologists by such 
able students of them as 8. Nikitin, A. Pavlov, W. Amalitzky, 
T. Tschernyschev, and N. Sokolov. The difficulties of transporting 
and personally conducting such large numbers were successfully 
overcome, but necessitated the compression of the passage of the 
Caucasus into far less time than was desirable or was originally 
intended. Side excursions to Eibruz, Grozny, Astrakhan, the Tsei 
and Devdorak ‘glaciers, and other points of interest compensated 
for this in some measure, and usually proved to be the most 
enjoyable parts of the excursion. After ridding themselves of 
superfluous roubles in the bazaars of Tiflis, the visitors explored 
Baku, the city of petroleum, and then crossed the Black Sea to 
study the Jurassic, Cretaceous and igneous rocks of the Crimea 
under the leadership of A. de Lagorio, N. Andrussov, C. de Vogt, 
and others. F. Loewinson-Lessing, after his arduous Caucasus 
campaign, engaged in the no less difficult enterprise of transporting 
some forty persons, of both sexes, to Ararat. With the rough way 
made plain for them and the crooked straight, those who took part 
in this excursion declared that in beauty and interest it was worth 
all the rest put together. Its close was unfortunately saddened 
by the loss of Mr Stoeber, a lecturer on pharmacy at Vladikavkaz, 
who was helping Professor Lessing. Joining in an unsuccessful 
attempt to ascend Great Ararat, he was more rash than his com- 
panions, who subsequently found him frozen to death. 
The pleasure of many of these excursions was seriously marred 
by the great numbers that availed themselves of the exceptional 
opportunity. Worse still, it appeared that many of the members 
were hardly geologists. An attempt will probably be made in 
future to restrict the membership of the International Geological 
Congress to recognised workers. There is no reason why such a 
body as this should have its dignity and usefulness marred by all 
the tag-rag-and-bobtail that choose to rush for railway passes and 
free champagne, and we shall warmly support any movement for- 
the more sparing distribution of its privileges. 
