SESSION 1900-1901. 
I—A FIELD NATURALIST’S HOLIDAY AT 
THE PARIS EXHIBITION. 
By Mr W. C. CRAWFORD, F.R.S.E., PRESIDENT. 
(Read November 28, 1900.) 
[ABBREVIATED. ] 
_ In the beginning of September of this year (1900) I went 
to Bradford to attend the meeting of the British Association ; 
and when it was over I went direct to Paris to see the 
Exhibition, and be present at the Botanical Congress. I had 
arranged the time of my visit for that purpose. And although 
I arrived in Paris more than a fortnight before the Congress 
met, that was not too long to see the finest museum of con- 
temporary art, science, and industry that has ever existed: 
that I have no hesitation in saying, for I have seen four great 
_ Exhibitions in Paris—in fact, all except the first. I was away 
from home six weeks in all, and I am sure I never had in a 
Similar time so much and so varied intellectual food presented 
to me for intellectual digestion. 
We soon had our first glimpse of the fairy land which the 
Exhibition had created. It was evening and dark, and on our 
way from the Gare St Lazare to the Boulevard St Germain— 
near to which Boulevard we lived—we passed the Porte Mon- 
umentale, illuminated. It came upon us unexpectedly, and its 
enormous size, with its brilliant electric lamps of many well- 
harmonised colours, was very striking. In fact, I have never 
seen anything when illuminated artificially look so effective. 
VOL. IV. L 
