MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 17 



curiosity as by scientific interest. The work included an elemen- 

 tary course, two lectures a week, on the systematic description 

 of land forms, attended at the beginning by about 90 persons and 

 at the end by about 40; an intermediate course, one lecture a 

 fortnight, on the principles of geographic presentation, attended at 

 first by about 40 persons and afterwards much reduced, partly be- 

 cause it did not enter into the scheme of work required of French 

 students, partly because it was intended for observers or explorers 

 rather than for teachers of the usual type; and a seminary of 

 teachers and advanced students, once a fortnight, for the discussion 

 of advanced problems, attended by from 15 to 30 members. The 

 elementary lectures were supplemented by an hour of practical 

 exercises each week, but the habitual silence of beginners at the 

 Sorbonne — a silence that is regretted by local as well as by visit- 

 ing professors — diminished the expected value of this effort. 

 In February, four lectures were given on South Africa, as a part 

 t of the regional study of Africa which was a prescribed subject for 

 the advanced students of geography in the winter of 1911-1912. 



In March I had the pleasure of leading an interuniversity party 

 of professors and students, numbering 33 in all, for a week in a 

 district of much interest southeast of Paris. During the winter 

 much attention was given, in cooperation with Mr. Robert Bacon, 

 then American Ambassador to France, now Fellow of Harvard 

 College, to the extension of our relations with French universi- 

 ties, which now seems to be assured by the establishment of the 

 Harvard Foundation for that object. A Harvard Club of France 

 was formed, again with the efficient aid of Mr. Bacon, a prelimi- 

 nary and the first regular meeting being held at his hospitable 

 residence: I had the honor of being elected president of the Club. 

 On leaving Paris in the middle of March, I visited the Universi- 

 ties of Dijon, Lyons, and Grenoble, and gave two lectures, one 

 popular, one technical, at each institution. Much interest was 

 expressed by the professors whom I then met, in the proposed 

 broader relations of Harvard with French universities. After a 

 fortnight in Italy and brief stops in Paris and London I reached 

 Boston on April 25. A mid-winter episode deserves mention: — 

 on account of being president of the Geological Society of America 

 for the year 1911, I left Paris on December 16, arrived in New 

 York, Dec. 23, presided over the meeting of the Society in Wash- 

 ington, Dec. 27-29, delivering an address on the " Relation of 

 Geography to Geology" on the last evening of the meeting, sailed 

 from New York, Dec. 30, and reached Paris in time for the semi- 

 nary of January 6. 



