=La Nature's Second Scientific Excursion.=--A second scientific excursion to an interesting district of France is planned, by M. Henri de Parville, of _La Nature_, to start from Bayonne August 25th. It will spend about two weeks, following the chain of the Pyrenees from the ocean to the Mediterranean. Among objects of interest enumerated are the scenery at Biarritz, Pau, Cauterets, and Bigorre; fine architecture at Toulouse, Carcassonne, Elne, etc.; glacial phenomena and thermal waters along the whole mountain chain; manufactories, including iron works at Bouchain, woolen mills at Bigorre, cigarette factories at Perpignan, and the Arago Maritime Laboratory and the sanitarium at Banyuls. The excursion will be "personally conducted" by the eminent anthropologist and archæologist, M. E. Cartaillac. The excursion last year, to the Central Plateau and the Tarn, was an eminent success. The programme of the present one seems equally attractive. M. de Parville and his associates deserve great credit for their sagacity and enterprise in inaugurating these excursions, which now promise to become annual. We can conceive nothing more profitable and conducive to real pleasure in a vacation than the tour in the company of men having a common interest in the pursuit of knowledge of Nature and art, through such magnificent regions as that of the Pyrenees or through a country so full of natural wonders and novelties as that of last year's excursion. And it will be an incalculable advantage to be under the guidance of so eminent a student and one so familiar with the remarkable features and the antiquities of southern France as M. Cartaillac. =The American Association Meeting.=--The forty-eighth annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science will be held at Columbus, Ohio, August 19th to 26th. The association headquarters will be in University Hall, of the Ohio State University, and the headquarters of the council will be at the Chittenden Hotel. The president of the meeting will be Prof. Edward Orton, of the Ohio State University. The vice-presidents or chairmen of sections will be: Mathematics and astronomy, Alexander Macfarlane; physics, Elihu Thomson; chemistry, F. P. Venable; mechanics and engineering, Storm Bull; geology and geography, J. F. Whiteaves; zoölogy, S. H. Gage; botany, Charles R. Barnes; anthropology, Thomas Wilson; social and economic science, Marcus Benjamin. The Permanent Secretary is L. O. Howard, Cosmos Club, Washington; General Secretary, Frederick Bedell, Cornell University; Secretary of the Council, Charles Baskerville, Chapel Hill, N. C.; Treasurer, R. S. Woodward, Columbia University, New York. The address of retiring President Putnam will be delivered Monday evening, August 21st. Saturday, August 26th, will be devoted to excursions to Fort Ancient and elsewhere. Receptions and shorter excursions will be provided at hours that will not conflict with the appointments of the association.