374 Scientific I ntelligence — (leology. 



of Tachernosem in Russia, remarkable tor its fertility, and which 

 covers 00,000 geographical square miles of country to a depth from 

 half a yard to two yards and a half, is a fine example of the utility 

 of microscopic examination of soils. This black earth was proved 

 by this examination to be a fresh-water deposit, and that probably 

 its extraordinary fertility was in some degree connected with its 

 abundance of microscopic fossil animals and plants, and their re- 

 mains. 



8. Rock Salt of the Punjaub in India. — Dr Andrew Fleming, 

 in the medical service of the Hon. East India Company, has ascer- 

 tained the geological position of the salt in the North Punjaub to be 

 below the carboniferous limestone, in the form of a bed or beds. Geo- 

 logists consider this geological discovery as one of great importance. 



9. M. Elie de Beaumont, in his first memoir, read to the French 

 Academy in June 1829, on Mountain Systems in Europe, indicated 

 four systems ; soon after he indicated nine, then twelve, and laterally 

 twenty-one. He now considers it probable that before long, if the 

 study of this department of geology is continued, that the number 

 of systems will be above a hundred. 



10. Survey of the suppositious Submarine Bridge of the Nor- 

 wegians. — The survey of the so-called long " sea-bridge" (Havbroe), 

 which was supposed to range along the coast of Norway, is finished, 

 and shews that the Jutland bank stretches west and north to about 

 61°, but is separated from the Norwegian bank by a channel nearly 

 200 fathoms deep ; that the fishing grounds between Stal and Cliris- 

 tiansand are not so distant from the coast as was supposed, and are 

 completely separated from the Jutland bank ; and hence the tradi- 

 tion of the existence of a continuous submarine bridge between the 

 coast of Norway and the Continent is a fable. These banks prove 

 to be, in fact, as every geologist would a priori suppose, the repre- 

 sentations, under the sea, of the detached " Osar" of the Swedes, 

 and the Sk} a>rgaarden of the Norwegians, as seen in the water- 

 worn gravel ridges of the present continent of Scandinavia. — (Ad- 

 dress at the Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, 

 24*A May 1852. By Sir R. I. Murchison, p. 42.) 



11. On the Pterodactyles of the Chalk Formation. — Mr Bower- 

 bank, at the meeting of the British Association at Ipswich, in 1851, 

 exhibited drawings and restorations of remains of these winged rep- 

 tiles, shewing that the great species of the chalk (P. Cuvieri) must 

 have had a spread of wing equal to 16 feet 6 inches ; whilst a second 

 large species (i?. compressorostris) was estimated at 15 feet. The 

 largest species from the lias, previously well known, the P. macronix 

 of Buckland, was only computed at 4 feet 7 inches from tip to tip 

 of its expanded wings. 



12. On the Remains of a Gigantic Bird from the London Clay 



