the left of the doorway, an admirable model (executed by Mr. Dew, the paleontological modeller and sculptor of the Museum) of the carapace, or shell of a young individual of the extinct Colossal Tortoise of India (Colossochelys Atlas), of which there are many fossil remains in the collection. This specimen is ten feet long, twenty-five feet in horizontal circumference, and fifteen feet in girth in a vertical direction; gigantic as are these proportions, they are one-third less than those of the adult original.

ROOM I.

(53 feet long, 36 feet wide.)

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS.

ORGANIC REMAINS.

WALL-CASES. Fossil Vegetables.-Chiefly on the south and west sides of the room. The arrangement is botanical; the simplest forms of vegetable structure, the Algæ, &c. are in the first case, to the right of the entrance.

A. [1. A, B, C.] Algo and Fuci (Fossil sea-plants).—With these are several vegetables whose characters are not accurately determined; they belong to a higher group, as Asterophyllites, Annularia, Pilularites, &c.

B. [2. B, C, D, E.] On the upper shelves are the Equisetacea, i. e. plants allied to the Equisetum, or Mare's-tail (Calamites). On the lower division are Filicites, or fossil ferns, of many species and genera.

On the top of this case there, are stems of several species of Calamites, from the Coal formation.

C. [3. A, B, C, D, E, F.] On the shelves of the upper division are many beautiful specimens of the flattened stems of Sigillaria, and of Lycopodiaceae or Club-mosses, from the Coal strata.

The lower compartment contains numerous species of ferns, in clay-slate or shale, from similar deposits; and others from the Oolite.

The lowermost shelf is devoted to silicified stems of trees allied to the Palms (called Psaronia by M. Cotta), many of which are polished in transverse sections, to show the structure.

On the top of this case there are portions of large stems of fossil Palms, from Chemnitz, and from the State of Ohio. D. [4.] This case is chiefly allotted to the fossil Clubmosses, or Lycopodites, some slabs of which are very fine : the fruits of these trees, termed Lepidostrobus, are arranged on the lower shelves. There are many fine specimens in ironstone nodules, from Colebrook Dale.

E. [5. A, B, C. D.] The Sigillaria and Lycopodiaceae occupy the upper division; the lower contains fossil plants allied to the Cycadeaceae (labelled Asphodele): among these are Sternbergia; and Clathraria, Endogenites, and Dracaena, from the Wealden formations of Sussex and Kent.

On one of the shelves there are a few fruits from the London Clay of the Isle of Sheppey, belonging to plants allied to the Palms (Nipa); with leaves and stems of Palms from other localities.

Above cases D and E, are placed a silicified stem of a tree from the Isle of Portland; and several large specimens of Endogenites erosa, from the Wealden strata at Hastings.

In the narrow compartment of this case, on the left of the doorway, there is a fine palm-leaf (Palmacites Lamanonis), from the Tertiary strata of Aix, in Provence (formerly in the author's collection).

On the left of the doorway, on the ground, there is part of a petrified stem of a Palm, from the Valley of the Nerbudda, in India.

On the right, a slab of Lias limestone, from Dorsetshire, on which is lying, in relief, a leafless branch, four feet long, of a coniferous tree.

F. [6. A, B, C, D.] The shelves of the upper division contain fossil Conifera (A and D), and many fine specimens of the vegetables termed Stigmaria, under the general name of Euphorbiaceae (B and c). There are several interesting fossil Conifera, as Pinus, Araucaria, Thuytes, Voltzia, &c. ; and fircones from the Crag of Norfolk.

The lower division comprises examples of leaves, fruit, and stems, of extinct plants allied to the Cycadea (Pterophyllum)

and Zamia (Ctenis), chiefly from the fluvio-marine strata of the Oolite of Scarborough, in Yorkshire.

In this case are specimens of the extinct Cycadeous plants of the Isle of Portland (named by M. Brongniart, Mantellia); and on the top of this case several fine examples, some of which are cut and polished, of similar plants from the same celebrated locality (collected by the author in 1825).

On the lowermost shelves there is an extensive series of silicified trunks of coniferous trees; many are cut transversely and polished, to exhibit the organic structure, which is beautifully preserved.

On brackets between the east windows there are busts of Henry VIII. and of his daughter Mary, sculptured in brown jet.

Meteoric Iron.-On a pedestal between the windows there is a mass of Meteoric Iron from the Gran Chaco, in South America; collected and presented by Sir Woodbine Parish. It weighs 1,400 pounds, and is supposed to be part of that of Otumpa, described by Rubin de Celis, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1783.

SMALL TABLE CASES, ETC.

Fine

a. Under the window at the east end of the room. masses of fossil wood from Van Diemen's Land, by Mrs. Howley: some of these are very beautiful examples of opalized wood. In the recesses of the windows there are portions of trunks of trees in a similar state of mineralization, from New Holland; presented by the late Sir Francis Chantry. b. (Unoccupied.)

c. A fine slab of jet, from Whitby.

(The tables of minerals under the windows are not numbered.)

d. A splendid example of the footprints of bipeds, supposed to be those of Birds, (hence named Ornithichnites,) on triassic sandstone, from Turner's Falls, Massachusetts, United States of North America. This slab is 8 feet by 6, and contains the foot-tracks of ten or twelve individuals of various sizes, which must have been impressed on the stone when it was in the state of plastic mud, and capable of retaining the imprints of the feet till it became indurated. It was ex

tracted from the rock with great labour and care by Dr. Deane of Greenfield. In the window recess on the right, there is a slab with two imprints of a colossal biped, the locality of which is unknown. 1

On the recess of the window between d and e, there is a large slab with foot-tracks of a supposed reptilian quadruped to which the name of Chirotherium has been provisionally given, from the hand-like form of the imprints; in Triassic sandstone, from Storton quarries, near Liverpool. Presented

by J. Tomkinson, Esq.

e. Two slabs placed upright in a case affixed to the wall, with footmarks of a similar character. These are from the triassic deposits at Hildburghausen in Saxony.

In the recess of the window, between c and d, there is a fine mass of the mineral called Subsulphate of Alumina or Websterite, from the Plastic clay at Castle Hill, near Newhaven, in Sussex. (Collected and presented by the author. An account of the only known locality of this substance is given in the "Fossils of the South Downs.")

In the centre of the room, at the spot indicated by the circle in the plan, on an elegant table inlaid with choice marbles and minerals, there is a beautifully sculptured tortoise in Nephrite or Jade. This curious specimen of Indian art was found on the banks of the Jumna, near the city of Allahabad in Hindostan, and brought to England by Lieut.General Kyd. Presented by Thomas Wilkinson, Esq.

MINERALS.

The mineralogical arrangement adopted by Mr. Konig is that of Berzelius, founded upon the electro-chemical theory and the doctrine of definite proportions. The detail of the arrangement is indicated by the running titles on the outsides of the cases, and the labels attached to the specimens within.2

The cases containing the minerals are numbered and arranged in order, the first thirty in the Rooms I. to V. on

1 These specimens were purchased for 601.

2 "An electro-chemical arrangement, in accordance with the principles laid down by the great Swedish chemist himself not long before his death, in a memoir on this subject, has been given by Prof. Rammelsberg, in his 'J. J. Berzelius' Neues Mineral System, Nürnberg,