NOVEMBER 5, 1897.] 
strongly. Any matter which does not 
commend itself readily at the first presenta- 
tion should be laid aside promptly, that no 
member be allowed to express himself in 
such manner that his amour propre would be 
wounded in case the vote should go against 
him. All of the matters referred will be 
considered carefully by the committee as 
well as by a great part of the membership 
during the next three years, and there will 
be little difference of opinion respecting 
important matters at the Congress of 1900. 
The reading of memoirs was somewhat 
perfunctory, or rather the listening was so. 
The feeling seemed to be that these would 
be printed and that members would have 
opportunity to digest them at leisure. Sev- 
eral reports were presented by committees, 
and they will be published in the volume 
of proceedings. A committee was ap- 
pointed to consider the principles of chrono- 
logical classification of sediments and 
another to consider the propriety of estab- 
lishing an international journal of petrog- 
raphy. The Congress expressed itself as 
earnestly favoring the establishment of a 
permanent floating institute to carry on 
work such as that of the Challenger expedi- 
tion, and also as favoring the developing of 
geological courses for higher classes in 
lycees and gymnasia. The members were 
called upon to urge these matters upon their 
governinents. 
The Congress adjourned on September 
5th, to meet in Paris in 1900. 
The real value of this as of previous Con- 
gresses is not to be measured by the list of 
memoirs or by the records of discussions. 
Important as those may be, they are of 
vastly less importance than the actual con- 
tact of men coming from all parts of the 
world. Geologists from Asia, the Pacific 
islands, the Americas and almost all 
nations of Hurope met together ; too often 
known to each other previously only as 
streaks of printers’ ink, they became actual 
SCIENCE. 
675 
entities ; those devoted to similar studies 
found opportunity to compare observations ; 
many, whose conceptions of phenomena 
were limited by the little area of their 
country, have gone home with a broader 
knowledge ; and a long step has been taken 
toward binding together our men of geol- 
ogy. The true work of the Congress was 
done not so much in the sessions as in the 
huge lobby, wisely provided, where those | 
of like minds were gathered in little clus- 
ters making liberal dividends of knowledge. 
This feature was recognized as all impor- 
tant by the Committee of Organization, 
which, with this in view, planned the ex- 
cursions on which so much of the real work 
was done. 
To speak of individual members of the 
Committee of Organization as especially 
worthy of remembrance may seem ungra- 
cious when all were so untiring, but one 
cannot refrain from acknowledging the in- 
debtedness which all must feel to Karpin- 
sky, Tschernychew, Nikitin, Chrustchoff 
and Michalski, while the Americans will 
remember pleasantly the courtesies ren- 
dered by Mr. Gardiner, the only American 
student. in the University of St. Peters- 
burg. 
JouN J. STEVENSON. 
NEw YORK UNIVERSITY. 
Y 
A NEW INVESTIGATION OF MAN'S AN- 
TIQUITY AT TRENTON. 
It 
A RENEWED search for evidence of glacial 
man at Trenton induced Professors G. F. 
Wright and Arthur Hollick, Messrs. H. B 
Kimmel and G. N. Knapp, of the New 
Jersey Geological Survey, and myself, on 
June 25, 26, 27 and 28, 1897, to explore a 
site on the summit of the glacial gravel ter- 
race at Trenton, where Mr. Ernest Volk* 
* Working under the direction of Professor F. W. 
Putnam for the New York Museum of Natural His- 
tory, Mr. Ernest Volk was generally present at the 
