Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. ce 
with the upper diluvial mud of Belgium, France and Germany; not 
having anything in common with the latter, and differing from the 
loess by the absence of well-preserved freshwater and terrestrial 
shells indicating fluviatile or lacustrine origin. The loess, moreover, 
is never found on high plateaux ; but Mr. Murchison does not dis- 
sent from the belief that the two deposits may have been produced 
at nearly the same epoch. He is therefore induced to consider the 
Tchornoi Zem as a submarine formation accumulated gently at the 
bottom of a sea undisturbed by any violent current, and beyond the 
range of those operations which spread out the northern drift. The 
absence of marine shells, he says, is only a negative objection, and 
not to be opposed to the evidence afforded by the widely different 
nature of the deposits at considerable levels, far above the drainage 
of the country or the action of any body of water which could oc- 
cupy the valleys. Lastly, he ascribes the black colour of the earth 
to the state of decomposition of the vegetable matter originally dif- 
fused through the mud which now forms the fertile Tchornoi Zem 
of Russia. 
XII. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 
CURATOKRSHIP OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, 
WE are happy in being enabled to state that the distinguished 
zoologist, Mr. E. Forbes, has been appointed Curator and Libra- 
rian of the Geological Society of London;—Mr. Forbes’s name having 
been selected by the Council from a list of nine candidates, several 
of whom preferred very strong scientific claims. The choice of the 
Council was confirmed by an unanimous vote of a Special Meeting of 
the Society, held on the morning of the 14th of December. 
We congratulate our geological friends on having secured the ser- 
vices of a naturalist who is qualified by his talents and acquire- 
ments to be a worthy successor of Mr. Lonsdale. 
FORCE OF AQUEOUS VAPOUR. 
To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine and Journal. 
GENTLEMEN, 
Your Number for last month contains a paper by Dr. Apjohn, as 
read at the Royal Irish Academy, ‘On the force of aqueous va- 
pour within the range of atmospheric temperature ;” and in Table 
1, which is for the correction of the mercurial column to 32° of 
Fahrenheit, I observe a wide difference in the result from what 
would have been the case from the method I have usually adopted, 
based upon the assertion of General Roy, for the expansion of mer- 
cury. 
Perhaps Dr. Apjohn will have the kindness to explain, through 
your pages, his method of making the before-named calculations, and 
thereby confer a great obligation on, 
Gentlemen, your obedient Servant, 
Helston, Dec. 3, 1842, M. P. Morus. 
