NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY 
259 
tion of articles, books for review, subjects of notes, etc, preference 
is given first to original records of personal work in exploration 
and research, and next to systematic writings tending to organ- 
ize, and thereby to advance and improve, geographic knowledge. 
Some of the most efficient instrumentalities employed by the 
Society in |)romoting geographic knowledge are more or less in- 
tangible. Through a large and widely scattered corresponding 
membership, interest in modern geography is diffused through- 
out the country ; through the public, high, and normal school 
teachers, especially in the District of Columbia and iUaryland, 
who are affiliated with the Society, a steadily increasing influ- 
ence is exerted on elementary geographic education. All the 
leading American universities are represented in the Society, 
and through them its influence on more advanced education is 
large and constantly increasing ; all the leading state and fed- 
eral surveys, geographic and geologic, are also represented, and 
in this way the surve}^s are brought into closer harmony, their 
interests are promoted, their efficiency is increased, and the ]>eople 
are benefited. In this and other ways the National Geographic 
Society strives to contribute to the scientific progress and thus 
to the material welfare of all parts of the countiy ; and there is 
evidence that its efforts are far from unsuccessful. 
EIGHTH ANNUAL FIELD MEETING OF THE NATIONAL 
GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY 
The annual field meeting, held at Monticello, near Charlottes- 
ville, Virginia, on Saturday, INIay 16, was noteworthy as the first 
meeting of the National Geographic Society in the well-defined 
geographic province known as the Piedmont plateau. 
A special train left M'^ashington at D.OO a. m., carrying about 
300 members and guests of the Society. Peaching Charlottesville 
at noon, the visitors were conveyed in carriages to Monticello, the 
homestead of Thomas .Jefferson. Here they were welcomed by 
Mayor .John S. Patton, of Charlottesville, in a felicitous address. 
Pesi)onding, President Ilubbanl happily characterized Char- 
lottesville as an intellectual center of the south, and, referring 
))articularly to Monticello, eulogized .Telfer.son as statesman, citi- 
zen, geographer, educator, and man. “ .Jelferson,” he said, “ was 
a man of acts, not words. His name is better known and more 
