380 proceedings of washington meeting. 



Session of Wednesday, December 30 



The Society convened at 10 o'clock a m, President Le Conte in the 

 chair. 



The report of the Council was taken from the table and adopted with- 

 out debate. 



The memoir of N. J. Giroux was read by F. D. Adams at this time, 

 but is inserted in proceedings of the preceding day (see page 377). 



The following report of the Photograph Committee was read by George 

 P. Merrill, the chairman of the Committee : 



SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PHOTOGRAPHS 



To the Council of the Geological Society of America : 



The Committee on Photographs have to report the addition of 139 

 views, bringing the full number in the collection up to 1,421. The 

 donors, named in the order of their sending, are : U. S. Geological Sur- 

 vey (Bailey Willis, 28) ; U. S. Geological Survey (G. K. Gilbert, 13) ; 

 U. S. Geological Survey (Whitman Cross, 12) ; J. P. Bishop, Buffalo, 

 New York (17) ; Professor Horace B. Patton, Golden, Colorado (5) ; Pro- 

 fessor Frank Adams, Montreal, Canada (10) ; U. S. National Museum 

 (George P. Merrill, 20) ; Professor J. F. Kemp (34). 



The chairman wishes once more to call the attention of the members 

 to the fact that the work of the committee is being done almost wholly 

 in the dark. They have no means of knowing how far the collections 

 meet the wants of the members, or how much demand there may be for 

 prints. During the entire year the chairman has not received a single 

 unsolicited suggestion. Under these circumstances he feels that if the 

 collection is lacking in desirable materials the committee should not be 

 held responsible. 



It may be well further to call the attention of the Society to the fact 

 that with the lapse of years many of the negatives from which these 

 prints are made are likely to become lost, mislaid, or broken. This is 

 particularly true of those belonging to private individuals. The ad- 

 visability of securing such negatives for the Society is therefore one that 

 might well receive consideration at this time. 



Respectfully submitted. 



George P. Merrill, 



Chairman, 



Washington, D. C, December 29, 1896. 



