408 The American Naturalist. [May, 
striking geological phenomena of the country where the Con- 
gress is held. To do this excursions are arranged and con- 
ducted by the best geologists of the nation acting as host and 
the foreign members are furnished with a “livret guide” or 
pamphlet containing maps, sections and a digest of the litera- 
ture bearing upon the regions to be examined. This was done 
in Switzerland and the little book is one of the most valuable 
of the souvenirs of the Congress. 
These Congresses have grown out of a resolution presented 
by the late Dr. T. Sterry Hunt in a meeting of the A. A. A.S. 
in Buffalo in 1876 to the following effect: “ Resolved, That a 
Committee of the Association be appointed to consider the 
propriety of holding an International Congress of Geologists 
at Paris during the International Exhibition of 1878, for the 
purpose of getting together comparative collections, maps and 
sections, and for the settling of many obscure points relating 
to geological classification and nomenclature.” The above 
Committee instead of “reporting on the advisability,” etc., 
went to work, and with the assistance of numerous foreign 
members actually organized a central bureau in Paris, where 
the first Congress was held in 1878. After laying down the 
plan for future work, this Congress fixed the dues of mem- 
bership at 12 francs, and created two Committees; one for the 
unification of the conventional geological symbols, and one for 
the unification of the nomenclature. 
The next Congress was held in Bologna in 1881, and thanks 
to Prof. (now Senator) Capellini and his influence with the 
Italian Government, the most important progress up to the 
present time was made, and the proceedings were perpet- 
uated in a volume which is a monument of good taste in 
typography and illustrations, and of scientific research in its 
contents. It decided to produce under the direction of the 
Congress a geological map of Europe, confiding its execution 
to Profs. Beyrich and Hauchecorne of Berlin. 
The third Congress was held in Berlin in 1885, the year 
1884 which would have been the next date for the Triennial 
' About the same time and entirely independently, Prof. Giovanni Capillini 
made an almost identical proposition to certain influential geological friends. 
