February 7, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



213 



were a number of interesting entertainments 

 consisting of dinners and receptions by the 

 Carnegie Institution, the officers of the Con- 

 gressional Library, the Cosmos Club and 

 other institutions. 



It will not be forgotten that men of the 

 diligent type of the German and other Euro- 

 pean professors must have made volumes of 

 various notes, and the crop of papers and 

 books on America that may be expected in the 

 coming years on the other side of the ocean 

 may well be surprising. Eecords by photog- 

 raphy were not the least. One of the strenu- 

 ous Frenchmen took at least one thousand 

 pictures, and it was ascertained by one of the 

 Swiss members who had something of a genius 

 for statistics and inquiry, that about twelve 

 thousand photographs were made by the party 

 as a whole. 



One who had two months' experience of the 

 excursion must almost say that the home life 

 on the train was larger and more valuable 

 than anything else. It surprised all to find 

 that vehicles on wheels could become so thor- 

 oughly homelike, and it was the ordinary ex- 

 perience for members of the party returning 

 even from the best of hotels to say : " We are 

 glad to get back to the train." 



The permanent American members of the 

 party were about a dozen in number and rep- 

 resented Harvard, Tale and Columbia Uni- 

 versities, the University of Cincinnati, the 

 State Normal College of Michigan, the Uni- 

 versities of Wisconsin and Chicago, Colgate 

 University and the American Geographical 

 Society. Many temporary members were with 

 the party for one, two or three days at a time, 

 in regions where they could serve as guides 

 and helpers by reason of their own studies. 

 A daily bulletin was issued on the train 

 giving each day a full outline of the itinerary 

 and work of. the following day. There were 

 endless conversations in the sleeping cars, on 

 the observation platforms, in the observation 

 parlors, in the dining cars, on platform steps, 

 and everywhere. There were lectures in the 

 train and oS the train, indoors and out of 

 doors, and as the party melted down together 



toward the end there were entertainments, 

 improvised Indian dances, by a young Swiss 

 professor, occasional mock scientific papers, 

 taking off the foibles of the party, cartoons 

 from the skillful hands of a number of the 

 foreigners — in brief those bits of fun which 

 enliven weariness and make work eifective. 

 It is a tribute to the perfection of American 

 travel that in two months, with an average 

 party of sixty-five persons, but one meal was 

 served on the train, outside of the dining car. 



Nothing has been said in this story of the 

 great places. Of course they were visited — 

 the Yellowstone (six days), Crater Lake 

 (three days), the Wasatch and Lake Bonne- 

 ville, Great Salt Lake, and the irrigated fields 

 and orchards of the valley, the Grand Caiion 

 (the masterpiece of nature in North America), 

 and not least, Phcenix and Roosevelt, where 

 the Salt River Valley, the driest and hottest 

 region of Arizona, is being turned into one 

 of the gardens of the continent. Best of all 

 was the acquaintance which developed and the 

 friendships which were cemented. An emi- 

 nent foreign professor in a fraternal gathering 

 held in one of the cars before the train broke 

 up said that he counted the excursion the cul- 

 mination of his life, and he paid tribute to the 

 universal hospitality that they had found, both 

 among the home members of the party and 

 the citizens of many communities, and he 

 said that best of all, the men of Europe had 

 come to know the American gentleman. Not 

 only friendship must result, but broad and 

 just views of America by a group of foreign- 

 ers supremely qualified to understand. The 

 excursion was a kind of geographical congress 

 on wheels, and it was a means of international 

 comity. 



The final days in New York and the closing 

 dinner at the Waldorf Astoria made a fitting 

 end of the two months spent together. A 

 memorial volume will be published which will 

 include a history of the excursion by the 

 author of this sketch,, and a considerable 

 number of geographical essays by European 

 members of the party. 



Albert Perry Brigham 



