726 THE JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY. 



one journey before and one after the Congress were able to obtain 

 a good general idea of these two grand mountain systems, and 

 the great valley separating them. 



In order that the excursions should have the greatest success, 

 there were published in advance a new geological map of Swit- 

 zerland by Heim & Schmidt, a number of special memoirs by 

 various geologists, and an excellent official guidebook, an octavo 

 volume of over 300 pages, with numerous figures, maps, and sec- 

 tions. This book has a large number of parts, each one pertaining 

 to a particular excursion. In most cases each part has a general 

 statement of the geology of the district traversed and a detailed 

 account of the phenomena to be seen on each day of the journey. 



If one may judge by the two excursions which the writer was 

 able to attend, the conductors were masters of the geology of the 

 area covered, and eager to make the expeditions both pleasant 

 and profitable to all participating. Not only is this true, but the 

 citizens of Switzerland seemed to regard the Congress as a 

 national affair, and wherever the parties went, they were treated 

 with the greatest consideration and entertained with lavish hos- 

 pitality. 



At the sessions at Zurich there was no attempt whatever to 

 legislate on any scientific question of geology. The meeting 

 differed chiefly from other gatherings of geologists in that it was 

 international, and was therefore attended by an unusually large 

 number of eminent men. At the general sessions exceptionally 

 valuable papers were presented by some of the more prominent 

 geologists. Papers of a more special nature were read before the 

 several sections of General Geology, Stratigraphy and Palaeon- 

 tology, Mineralogy and Petrography, and Applied Geology. One 

 could therefore listen to the papers which were of particular inter- 

 est to him, without being under the necessity of hearing others. 



The excursions and sessions afforded an excellent opportu- 

 nity for mutual acquaintance and interchange of ideas. It will 

 doubtless be the experience of each geologist who attended the 

 Congress, as he reads the works of men with whom he has become 

 acquainted, that they will bring to him the image of the person 



