184 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [MAY 20, 
banks of dry and fine sand inclined at 31°, will report whether 
they yield deep sounds when disturbed. 
May 20, 1889. 
StaTED MEETING. 
The President, Dr. NewBurry, in the chair. 
Highty-four persons present. 
The list of publications received since the last meeting was 
read. 
The paper of the evening consisted of a lecture entitled 
ICELAND, ITS HISTORY, PEOPLE, AND SCENERY, 
by Prorgessor CHARLES SPRAGUE SMITH, of Columbia College, 
illustrated with a series of lantern views, from photographs 
taken during the summer of 1888, and with specimens from the 
celebrated Iceland geysers. 
The discovery of Iceland; its colonization and settlement in 
connection with political feuds and disturbances in Scandinavia; 
the new field of activity and enterprise opened to the Norse voy- 
agers in the direction of Western exploration, as the increasing 
power and stability of the European nations cut off the possibil- 
ity and profit of their marauding expeditions to the coasts lying 
south and east; the rise of Icelandic literature and the peculi- 
arities of the language; the growth of a social and political sys- 
tem at once free, simple, and strong; the discovery of Greenland, 
and thence of the Western Continent;—were all treated of in 
very clear and interesting connection. Pror. Smira then de- 
scribed the leading geographical features of the island, and the 
present state of society and life among its people. 
A unanimous vote of thanks was tendered to the lecturer at 
the close. 
