•International Geological Congress. 455 



mittee at the Buffalo meeting of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science, in 1876, the year of tbe Centen- 

 nial Exposition. This committee left the work of organizing 

 the first Congress in the hands of a committee of geologists, 

 who thereupon selected as the date of the first Congress the 

 year 1878, or that of the French " Exposition Universelle." 

 The first Congress was duly held, and was remarkable for 

 nothing so much as the absence of any representatives of 

 Germany. After settling some preliminary matters it was 

 decided that the next sitting of the Congress should be held at 

 Bologna, in 1881. 



This second session of the Congress was also held ; and by this 

 time, the methods of accomplishing the ends of unification in 

 nomenclature and coloring having become better understood, it 

 was determined to undertake to make a map of Europe on a 

 scale of T.-jnj-g-.-jnnj"* -^ committee was appointed to take this 

 in hand, and another to devise ways and means of making a 

 consistent nomenclature for the science. 



The two committees met at Foix and Zurich during the four 

 years that intervened between the Congress of Bologna and 

 that of Berlin, and the work of the present Congress has been 

 mainly the adoption of the propositions made at these meet- 

 ings. At the meeting of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science at Ann Arbor last summer, Professor 

 H. S. Williams and Professor Persifor Frazer were added to 

 the original committee, constituting the American delegation 

 and actually represented at Berlin by Professors James Hall 

 and J. S. Newberry. Professor Brush, who was in Berlin at 

 the time, was elected by the committee one of the members. 

 The members of the American committee present at the time 

 of the opening session of the Berlin Congress were, Prof. James 

 Hall (President), Prof. J. S. Newberry, Prof. Brush, Prof. H. 

 S. Williams and Prof. Persifor Frazer (Secretary). 



The International Geological Congress met at its third ses- 

 sion in Berlin, Monday, September 28. The members and dele- 

 gates arriving before this^ date registered at the office of the 

 Bureau in the Bergakademie. The council met at 11 o'clock 

 Monday morning to determine upon the programme of the first 

 session and nominate officers of the present meeting, and at 5 

 o'clock the members of the Congress assembled at the house of 

 the Reichstag for mutual greetings. Only members of the con- 

 gress were admitted, and those having registered and received 

 the card of membership were presented with the badge of the 

 Congress, which was in the form of a medal, with the well- 

 known geological and mining symbol of crossed hammers in 



