secretary's report 479 



the Summer Meeting occupied one day of the time of Section E, Ameri- 

 can Association for the Advancement of Science. 



Excursions. — Attention is again called to the subject of excursions and 

 field study by Professor Van Hise in his account of the Colorado excur- 

 sion (Bull., vol. 13, proceedings of Denver meeting). There can be no 

 doubt of the value of well-planned excursions. They might entirely 

 replace the summer meetings. Indeed, if the American Association 

 should change the time of its meetings to the winter, the summer meet- 

 ings of our Society, which have always been small, should be changed 

 to excursions or field meetings. 



In the present good condition of the finances the Society can afford 

 to encourage excursions by paying moderate expenses of conductors 

 and for printing of circulars and programs. The Council might invite 

 the Fellows of the Society to submit schemes for excursions in their 

 special fields. From these plans the Council could from year to year 

 sanction those which seemed most desirable. Various reasons would 

 enter into the matter of choice, which might involve the sequence or 

 succession from year to year. Some of the excursions might be open to 

 teachers and students of geology and physiography, while others should 

 be restricted to the Fellows of the Society. 



Membership. — Since the last report 5 Fellows have died — Edward W. 

 Claypole, George M. Dawson, R. D. Lacoe, Joseph Le Conte, Theo. G. 

 White. The 8 candidates elected at the summer meeting all qualified. 

 Three names have been erased from the list for non-payment of dues 

 and three by resignation* making the present enrollment 245. Five 

 Fellows are delinquent for two years. Three nominations are before 

 the Society and several are before the Council. 



Distribution of Bulletin. — Since the last report the closing brochures of 

 volume 11 and the complete copies of the volume have been distributed. 

 The brochures of volume 12 have also been sent, and before this report 

 is read it is expected that volume 12 will have been entirely distributed, 

 with probably the first brochures of volume 13. 



During the year 1901 the irregular distribution of the Bulletin has 

 been as follows : Complete volumes sold to Fellows, 21 ; to the public, 

 26. Three copies of volume 11 have been sent to Fellows on payment 

 of back dues, 2 copies have been donated, and 3 have been bound for 

 office use. Of brochures, 91 have been sent to fill deficiencies, 18 have 

 been sold to Fellows, and 13 to the public; 6 have been donated. The 

 sales appear in the table of Bulletin receipts later in this report. 



Up to this time the Secretary has honored claims for deficiencies even 

 in the early volumes. This practice should be discontinued, and the 



*By oversight the names of the three Fellows resigned were not omitted from the last printed 

 list (Bull., vol. 12, pp. 514-522). 



