IN spite of the difficulties which the International Congress of Genetics appears to be meeting, Soviet geologists are busy preparing for the eighteenth International Geological Congress, of which the opening plenary meeting will be held in Moscow on July 21. The session will close on July 29. Excursions, both prior to and following the Congress, are being arranged for delegates and their families. Pre-Congress tours, beginning on July 1, include the following: (A I) Karelia and the Kola Peninsula: Pre-Cambrian; igneous complexes; ore deposits; (A 2) Ukraine and Crimea: Pre-Cambrian; Donets Coal Basin; Crimean stratigraphy and tectonics; (A 3) Volga: stratigraphy of the East European U.S.S.R.; Caspian depression; salt domes; engineering problems; (A 4) Caucasus: stratigraphy; tectonics; igneous activity and ore deposits; (A 5) South Urals, Kazan and Donets Basin: stratigraphy and palaeontology of the western slope of the Urals. The longer August excursions, the first two of which will occupy forty days, are as follows: (G 1) Urals, Caspian, Caucasus: the principal oil deposits of the U.S.S.R.; (G 2) Siberia: Caledonian, Variscan and Alpine tectonics; Palaeozoic and Mesozoic stratigraphy and associated coal and iron deposits; ((73) Novaya Zemblya: stratigraphy and tectonics; Caledonian granites and mineralization; ((74) Urals: gabbro-peridotite and alkali complexes; mineral deposits of great variety. Full details and conditions of membership are given in the Third Circular, issued by the Organization Committee, copies of which may be obtained from the General Secretary, Moscow 17, Bolshaya Ordynka, 32. All arrangements for travelling, hotel accommodation, etc., are in the hands of Intourist, Ltd., Bush House, Aldwych, London, W.C.2.