to-date" outline of the geological features of Russia than has before been attainable.
The volume was prepared for members attending the congress and presented to them. The very few copies that have reached this country have been brought by American delegates who have lately returned. Whether, or how far, the work will be procurable hereafter through any ordinary channels does not yet appear. It is to be hoped, however, that at least our scientific institutions and libraries may be able to secure copies of so valuable a treatise.
The general outline of the excursions was as follows: During the month prior to the meeting, a journey to the celebrated mining and mineral regions of the eastern Urals, the route being from Moscow by rail south and east, by Penza to Oufa, passing through the Urals to Zlatoust; then by the Ural Railway, which runs parallel to the mountains on the Asiatic side, north to Ekaterinbourg and the mining district of Tagilsk; thence recrossing the Urals to Perm, and from there by steamer down the Kama and up the Volga to Nijni Novgorod and back to Moscow by rail.
After the congress another great trip was arranged for—to southern Russia, the Caspian, the Caucasus, and the Crimea; this comprised several selections or "variants." The main route was from Moscow to Vladikavkaz in the Caucasus, one section going by rail through the valley of the Don; another proceeding by Kiev and taking the Dnieper valley; and a third going to Nijni Novgorod, and by steamer down the Volga to Astrakhan and on the Caspian Sea to Petrovsk; and all meeting at Vladikavkaz. From this point the route led by the great military road of Georgia, south to Tiflis, and thence to visit the oil deposits at Baku on the Caspian, returning by Tiflis to Batoum on the Black Sea, and by steamer to the Crimea, the excursion breaking up at Sebastopol.
A number of side trips to points of special interest were further associated with these excursions, and there were also two shorter excursions—one to Esthonia and one to Finland—for the study of early Palæozoic and Archæan rocks and glacial deposits.
These outlines are necessary in order to give an idea of the extent of country covered by the series of guidebooks that compose this notable volume. The first monograph is a description of the geology of Moscow and its environs, by Professor Nikitin; the last, by Prof. F. Schmidt, deals similarly with the vicinity of St. Petersburg. The remaining thirty-two take up seriatim the districts traversed by the several excursions and "variants." Nearly all of them are freely illustrated with sections, maps, diagrams, etc.; some have interesting views and photographs, and the more important have
