Report of the Sub-Committee on the 
Archean.* 
PERSIFOR FRAZER, 
EEPORTEK. 
Preliminary Remarks. 
The Congress at Berlin, September 28 to October 3, 1885, 
took under its consideration the work which had been accom- 
plished by the two previous Congresses (Paris, 1878, and Bologna, 
1881), and also the propositions of two International Committees 
appointed in Bologna to prepare plans respectively for the uni- 
fication of geological nomenclature, and for the coloration of 
geological maps. These Committees met at Foix and Zurich, in 
Switzerland, during the four years which intervened between 
the Congresses of Bologna and of Berlin, and the discussion, 
clause by clause, of their reports formed the only important busi- 
ness of the Berlin session. It is proper to begin, therefore, with 
the propositions either specially pertaining to, or so general as to 
include the Archean. 
For the purpose of making a practical test of the color scheme 
which had been, in general, outlined at Bologna, but in the 
perfection of which much discretion was allowed the Committee, 
it had been decided to produce a geological map of Europe: it 
being thought that whatever defects existed could be best ob- 
served in that portion of the world's crust which was best known 
to the largest number of geologists ; and as to which, owing to 
* According to the rule recommended by the Congress this word should be 
Archeic, and is so used by the Portuguese and Roumanian Committees (see p. 
156), but the form more generally employed is tJuit above, or the same termi- 
nation with the objectionable middle diphthong. — P. F. 
