While a physical congress was meeting at Paris this year for the first time, the Geological Congress, which was one of the first international congresses to be organized, held its eighth session, beginning on August 16. America, in spite of the number and importance of the inventions it has given to the world, has not as yet done its share for the advancement of physical science, but in geology it occupies a foremost place. It was natural, therefore, that while American physicists were scarcely represented on the programme of the Physical Congress, they occupied a prominent place on the programme of geological papers. Among the three hundred members present, the representation from America included Messrs. Stevenson, Hague, Osborn, Ward, Willis, White, Cross, Scott, Todd, Kunz, Choquette, Adams, Mathew and Rice, and they presented a number of the more important papers. M. Karpinsky, the retiring president, gave the opening address, which was followed by an address of welcome by M. Gaudry, the president of the congress. A geological congress can offer special attractions in the way of excursions, and these were admirably arranged on the present occasion--both the shorter excursions to the classic horizons in the neighborhood of Paris and the more extended ones that followed the close of the meeting. The guide for the twenty long excursions and numerous shorter trips, prepared by the leading French geologists, was an elaborately illustrated volume representing the present condition of our knowledge of French geology. The ninth geological congress will be held at Vienna three years hence. * * * * *