A TRIP TO THE TROPICS. 13 



MEETING FOR DISCUSSION. 



Owing to a severe snow-storm, but a small number of persons 

 were present, and the meeting was adjourned for one week. 



BUSINESS MEETING. 



Satukday, Januarj^ 16, 188G. 



An adjourned meeting of the Society was holdcn at 11 o'clock, 

 President Walcott in the chair. 



^ The Annual Report of the Committee on Publication and Dis- 

 cussion was read by O. B. Hadwen, Chairman, accepted, and or- 

 dered to be placed on file. 



Adjourned to Saturda}^ January 23. 



MEETING FOR DISCUSSION. 



A Trip to thk Tuopics. 



By Joseph H. "Woodford, Newton. 



Our Committee on Discussions having learned that I lately 

 returned from a voyage to Central America, and being desirous 

 that otliers should know more about this wonderful countr}' than 

 can readily be got from books, have prevailed upon me to relate 

 m}' experience while engaged in this trip ; and this I will now pro- 

 ceed to do in as brief a mnnncr as possible. 



The voyage commenced on the 8d day of October of last year, 

 with a thick fog and a head wind. We were compelled to put out 

 to sea immediately to escape the fog, and then laid our course in 

 a straight line for the Bahamas, considering that a straight line is 

 the shortest distance between two points. It may be so in most 

 cases, but one " can't 'most always tell " if this is the case on a 

 voyage ; particularly if the ship is having sea mountains to climb 

 all the way, and finding the steepest ones at the end of the straight 

 line, in the " roaring forties." Lady Brassey's descriptions of the 

 s^ns avQund the Bahamas are very interesting and truthful, and I 



