360 PROCEEDINGS OF WASHINGTON MEETING. 



held, President Joseph Le Conte in the chair. Mr Charles D. Walcott, 

 Director of the United States Geological Survey, made a brief address of 

 welcome, and suggested that the Society should establish the custom of 

 holding its meetings in Washington very frequently. After a few words 

 of response, the President introduced the administrative business by a 

 call for the report of the Council. This was submitted in print by the 

 Secretary and copies were distributed to the Fellows. 



REPORT OF THE COUNCIL 



To the Geological Society of America, 



in Ninth Annual Meeting assembled : 



During the past }^ear the Council has found it necessary to hold only 

 its stated meetings in connection with the Philadelphia and Buffalo 

 meetings of the Society. The Council congratulates the Society that the 

 prevailing financial distress of the past year has not seriously affected 

 the membership and finances of the Society, and that in all respects the 

 Society is in a very prosperous condition, as will be shown by the reports 

 of the executive officers. 



The Council recommends that the rules be so changed as to make the 

 Editor an ex officio member of the Council. 



Secretary's Report 



To the Council of the Geological Society of America : 



Meetings. — The records of the two meetings of the Society, at Philadel- 

 phia and Buffalo, are printed in the Proceedings and require no repeti- 

 tion here. The experiment of holding only an administrative session at 

 the summer meeting, allowing all papers to be read in Section E of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of offering 

 several excursions open to the public, was not altogether satisfactory. 

 At Buffalo the Society practically effaced itself for the time, but to the 

 decided advantage of Section E, which had a full program. The excur- 

 sions were not well supported. Of the four offered two were abandoned 

 and the other two were not sufficiently attended to compensate for the 

 labor and expense. For the next summer meeting a different plan is 

 proposed, the Society to occupy a portion of the time of Section E. 



Membership. — The Society has lost three more names from the roll by 

 death. Robert Hay died December 14, 1895 ; Charles Wachsmuth died 

 February 7, 1896, and N. J. Giroux died November 30, 1896. To the 228 

 names of Fellows in the last printed list (April, 1896) must be added the 

 following names of six Fellows elected at the Summer meeting, all of 

 whom have qualified: J. G. Aguilera, Philip Argall, Ezequiel Ordonez, 



