Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/223

Rh committee on geological nomenclature will doubtless make a fair showing, although beset by many difficulties in harmonizing the views of members. A difference of opinion of grave proportions, which has threatened the life of past congresses, concerns the probable culmination of previous attempts of geologists to get the control of the organization out of the hands of officials of the scientific bureaus of various governments. The excursions laid out certainly cover a vast territory, including the Ural Mountains, Moscow, Volga River region. Samara to Kazan, the glacial formations of Esthonia, Finland, basin of the Donetz, mineral waters of Vladikavkaz, Nijni-Novgorod, Kiew, Dnieper River, to Tifiis and glaciers by military route of Georgia, Tifiis to Baku, Batoum, and Kertch, all parts of the Crimea, Sebastopol, southern Russian mining region, to the glacier Guenaldon at Piatigorsk. Lake Gokhtcha, Mount Ararat, etc.

The International Geological Congress was conceived by the American Association for the Advancement of Science at the Buffalo meeting, 1876, when a resolution was adopted, calling for such a congress to be held in Paris in 1878. The committee comprised W. B. Rogers, Dr. James Hall, J. W. Dawson, the late Dr. J. S. Newberry, the late Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, C. H. Hitchcock, R. Pumpelly, of America; the late Prof. T. H. Huxley, Dr. Otto Torrell, and E. H. van Baumhaur, of Europe. Dr. Hall was made chairman of the committee and Dr. Hunt secretary. Their labors resulted in the first international congress being held in Paris in 1888. The second congress was held in Bologna, the third in Berlin, the fourth in London, the fifth in Washington, and the sixth in Zürich, at intervals of three years.

The geological map of Europe was conceived at the congress of Bologna, where it was determined that the methods of accomplishing the ends of unification in nomenclature and coloring had become sufficiently understood. It was thought best to select