Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume VIII, No. 5 [‎38v] (79/154)

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GEOGRAPHY AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION, LIVERPOOL,
1896 .
The meeting of the British Association at Liverpool, from September
18 to 23, 1896, was the largest and most successful of recent years.
The total number of tickets issued, amounting to 3180, has only twice
been exceeded—at Newcastle in 1863, and at Manchester in 1887. If
it were possible to distinguish the Liverpool meeting from all others
by any one feature, that would be the convenient and even magnificent
housing of the Association as a whole and all the sections. Section E
certainly fared the best of all, for the “ Small Concert Hall,” in the
same building with the great St. George’s Hall, which served as the
reception-room, was allotted to it. The hall is circular, of large
dimensions, seating comfortably about a thousand people; it has just
been redecorated, and was effectually darkened to admit of the use of
the lantern. The attendance at the meetings of the section was very
large, and much more uniform than usual. Very few papers were read
to a small audience, and the number of communications sent in was
so great (thirty-four) that a meeting had to be held on Saturday fore
noon, in addition to the four days w'hich usually suffice.
The Organizing Committee had arranged the papers of which
intimation had been given in such a w*ay that similar subjects were
kept together; but the failure of some authors to put in an appearance,
the changing of dates, which had been fixed to suit themselves, by
others, and the presentation of valuable communications at short
notice by gentlemen who could only attend on particular days, broke
down the prepared order, and made the proceedings of each day too
varied to be altogether profitable. It must, however, be recognized that
the papers submitted were in themselves of great interest and value,
and many of them afforded satisfactory proof of the sound study of
geography as a science, and not as the mere record of explorations. But
in exploration the story of some splendid successes was told, and an
unexampled collection of the finest lantern-slides brought the scenery of
many distant parts of the world vividly before most appreciative
audiences. The large diagram maps of the Royal Geographical Society
were as usual lent to the section.
The constitution of the section was as follows, the names of those
nominated as vice-presidents or members of Committee who were
disqualified by absence from the meeting or by not becoming members
of the Association being omitted:—
President: Major L. Darwin, Hon. Sec. R.G.S.; Vice-Presidents :—
John Coles, f.r.a.s. ; Admiral Sir Erasmus Ommanney, c.b., f.r.s. ;
Lieut.-Col. Sir Lambert Playfair, k.c.m.g. ; P. L. Sclater, f.r.s.; E. G.
Ravenstein; Coutts Trotter ; Horace Walker. Secretaries Lieut.-Col.
F. Bailey, Sec. R.S.G.S.; H. N. Dickson, f.r.s.e.; H. R. Mill, d.sc.