952 The American Naturalist. [November, 
nection with it and for the warm-hearted hospitality tendered 
them in every part of the broad empire which they visited. 
The program of excursions, issued early in the year by the 
Committee of Organization, was carried out in all its essential 
details. Moscow was the starting point of the first excursion 
to the Urals preliminary to the Congress, and consequently it 
was that city which most of the excursionists made their first 
objective point on entering the country. We found wherever 
we crossed the border that our membership tickets made the 
passage through the Custom House easy, although they did 
not replace our passports which we had. often to show. Our 
railroad passes too, were accepted without question, and the 
most courteous treatment greeted us on every hand. 
At Moscow we found the Bureau of the Congress established 
in the halls of the University, and here and in the parlors of 
the Continental Hotel, frequent gatherings of the excursionists 
took place during the three days we were in the city. The 
excursions in the vicinity of Moscow were of moderate inter- 
est geologically, the greatest attaching to that which visited 
the richly fossiliferous middle Carboniferous beds of Miatch- 
kowo on the bank of the Moskwa River. On the other hand, 
the city itself with its wholly oriental character in architecture, 
coloring and street life, offered more than enough attractions 
to occupy the time at our disposal, and there were doubtless 
few who did not regret leaving this, the centre and fountain- 
head of the Russian national life. 
About one hundred and thirty-five persons took part in the 
Ural excursion, of whom nine were ladies. A special train of 
thirteen cars was our means of transport and place of abode 
for the first three weeks of the trip, while a restaurant train of 
box cars, provided with tables and chairs, preceded us and 
furnished forth our meals. If there were numerous discom- 
forts associated with this style of living, one could not but re- 
member that there was no precedent for or experience of such 
an excursion as ours in the remote regions which we visited, 
and criticism was disarmed by the conditions. 
From day to day excursions of various kinds were made 
along or away from the general line of the railroad which was 
