1850.] MURCHISON VENTS OF HOT VAPOUR IN TUSCANY. 367 



3. Notice of the Occurrence o/Coal near Erzeroom. 



[Communicated from the Foreign Office, by order of Viscount Palmerston.] 



An extensive seam of coal has been discovered in tlie district of 01- 

 too *, about thirteen hours distant from Erzeroom. The coal is stated 

 not to be of prime quality, containing a good deal of sulphur ; 

 and it is slaty, leaving a residue, probably of 12 to 15 per cent. The 

 seam is represented as very broad, and situated on the side of a hill, 

 so that at present it can be worked for the mere labour, and a man 

 in a day can work out 600 okes, or about three-quarters of a ton. 



March 27, 1850. 



Henry Clifton Sorby, Esq., was elected a Fellow. 



The following communication was read : — 



On the Vents o/Hot Vapour in Tuscany, and their Relations 

 to Ancient Lines of Fracture and Eruption. By Sir 

 Roderick Impey Murchison, G.C.St.S., F.R.S. G.S. L.S., 

 Hon. Mem. R.S. Ed., R.I. Ac, Mem. Imp. Ac. Sc. St. Pet., Corr. 

 Mem. Ac. France, Berlin, Turin, &c. &c. 



Introduction. — In surveying the principal localities of those re- 

 markable vents of hot vapour in the Tuscan Maremma, called " La- 

 goni," "Fumacchi," "Fumarole," "Soffioni," '*Mofetti," and even 

 " Volcani f ," I perceived that their issue took place upon ancient 

 parallel lines of fracture, along which serpentinous and other eruptive 

 rocks had been emitted. As I am not aware that this coincidence in 

 lines of eruption, acted upon at epochs so remote from each other, has 

 been previously adverted to in any geological account of Tuscany, I 

 will first call attention to the phaenomenon. I shall next take this 

 opportunity of expressing my opinion respecting the origin of the 

 " gabbro rosso " of the Tuscans, a rock intimately associated with 

 serpentine ; and, after a brief allusion to recent earthquake shocks 

 along the same lines, the memoir will be terminated by glancing at 

 the simultaneous production of great divergent elevations in Italy and 

 in the Alps, after the deposit of the nummulitic eocene formation. 



* In my 'Researches in Asia Minor, Pontus, and Armenia,' &c. this name is 

 spelt Olti. In crossing the mountain one or two days' journey to the westward, 

 I perceived that the strike of the vertical strata (which was from 'W.S.W. to E.N.E.) 

 would directly intersect Oltoo ; and these beds afforded the only instance of highly 

 crystalline hraestone with corals that I met with in this part of Asia Minor, and 

 are probably connected with the carboniferous deposits. — W. J. Hamilton, Sec. 

 Geol Soc. 



t For Itahan descriptions of the Lagoni, see Gio. Targioni Tozzetti, Viaggi ; 

 Repetti, Dizionario fisico, &c. della Toscana, tom. iii. p. 369 ; Bartolini, Atti dei 

 Fisio-critici, tom. vi. p. 335 ; Mascagni^ Commentario (Siena), 1779 ; Guerrazzi, 

 Contin. dei Georgofili, tom, ii. p. 435 ; and Repetti, Dizion. fisic. stor. ec. della 

 Toscana, tom. ii. p. 624, tom. iii. p. 374, and Continov. degli Atti dei Georgofili, 

 tom. xi. p. 49. 



